{"id":142583,"date":"2024-04-19T07:15:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-19T05:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=142583"},"modified":"2024-04-18T14:36:47","modified_gmt":"2024-04-18T12:36:47","slug":"the-green-revolution-of-food-waste-upcycling-to-produce-polyhydroxyalkanoates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/the-green-revolution-of-food-waste-upcycling-to-produce-polyhydroxyalkanoates\/","title":{"rendered":"The green revolution of food waste upcycling to produce polyhydroxyalkanoates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Highlights<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Upcycling food waste into PHAs offers a promising solution to reduce environmental impact and generate value-added products for drug delivery, scaffold materials, and tissue engineering.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lignocellulosic food waste requires pretreatment and detoxification, whereas waste cooking oil can be fermented directly to produce PHAs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Cupriavidus necator excels in PHA production from lignocellulosic feedstock, showing tolerance to inhibitors. Pseudomonas spp. stand out for waste cooking oil utilization owing to their capacity for esterase and lipase production, enabling PHA accumulation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Butyl acetate is the optimal solvent for PHA recovery owing to its high yield, purity, and molecular weight, with minimal toxicity. PHAs can be recycled through methods such as extrusion, pyrolysis, gasification, and anaerobic digestion within a closed-loop cycle.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"401\" src=\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2024\/04\/Trends-in-Biotechnology.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-142586\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.5960099750623442;width:702px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2024\/04\/Trends-in-Biotechnology.jpeg 640w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2024\/04\/Trends-in-Biotechnology-300x188.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2024\/04\/Trends-in-Biotechnology-150x94.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/media\/2024\/04\/Trends-in-Biotechnology-400x251.jpeg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">\u00a9 Trends in Biotechnology <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Abstract<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>This review emphasizes the urgent need for food waste upcycling as a response to the mounting global food waste crisis. Focusing on polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) as an alternative to traditional plastics, it examines the potential of various food wastes as feedstock for microbial fermentation and PHA production. The upcycling of food waste including cheese whey, waste cooking oil, coffee waste, and animal fat is an innovative practice for food waste management. This approach not only mitigates environmental impacts but also contributes to sustainable development and economic growth. Downstream processing techniques for PHAs are discussed, highlighting their role in obtaining high-quality materials. The study also addresses sustainability considerations, emphasizing biodegradability and recycling, while acknowledging the challenges associated with this path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Section snippets<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:9px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Urgency in food waste management and its upcycling<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Food loss and waste are a deep concern for food security, sustainability (see Glossary), and the environment. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, almost one third of total food production (1.3 billion tons) is wasted [1]. It is estimated that food waste causes ~$750 billion in economic loss annually and contributes to global warming by producing 4.4 billion tons of CO2eq per year [2]. Food waste is composed of rotten and inedible parts of fruits and &#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>PHA diversity and commercialization opportunities<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>PHA are a category of polymers with variable physical and chemical properties in which the monomer units are linked by ester bonds. Various microbes can accumulate PHAs inside the cell under different stress conditions in the presence of a suitable carbon source [9]. More than 150 different monomer units have been reported in PHAs. Basically, PHAs are categorized as short chain length (3\u20135 carbon units, scl-PHA), medium chain length (6\u201314 carbon units, mcl-PHA), and mixed (3\u201314 carbon units) &#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Microbe-mediated upcycling of food waste into PHAs<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Food wastage can be reduced by following the hierarchy order of prevention: reuse &gt; recycle &gt; recover &gt; dispose of. Prevention is the most effective measure, and in this regard a multi-stakeholder platform dedicated to prevention was established by the European Commission [22]. Food waste has significant potential as a feedstock owing to its composition, primarily comprising carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and microelements. Upcycling and bioconversion into PHAs through microbial fermentation &#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Updates on downstream processing of PHAs<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The production cost of PHAs is still high compared to petro-based plastics, and one of the reasons is the high recovery cost. PHAs accumulate in the cell cytoplasm, requiring cell lysis for PHA granule recovery. Downstream processing involves several steps such as biomass separation, cell disruption, and PHA extraction and purification. PHAs can be recovered in two ways, (i) using organic solvents to solubilize the PHA granules, and (ii) using chemical agents to disrupt the cells and release &#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Life-cycle assessment of food waste-derived PHAs and sustainability<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>PHAs are eco-friendly alternatives to petro-based plastics because they are biodegradable and can be produced using renewable feedstocks. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) has become a valuable tool for assessing the impact of biobased products on the environment. LCA analysis of bioplastic production has provided conflicting results compared to their petro-based counterparts. Biobased plastics have a lower environmental impact but are responsible for eutrophication and toxicity if the waste is not &#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Concluding remarks and future perspectives<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>There was a sharp increase in PHA production after 2014 and annual production in 2020 was ~100 000 tons. A variety of polymers are now produced commercially and their performance is comparable to that of fossil-based polymers. Although PHA biopolymers are considered to be an alternative to petro-based plastic, they still face many challenges including high production costs and poor mechanical and thermal properties. The production cost depends on the feedstock (50% of the total cost), the &#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Acknowledgments<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>This study was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) (grants NRF-2022R1A2C2003138, and NRF-2022M3I3A1082545) and by the R&amp;D Program of the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy (MOTIE)\/Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology (KEIT) (grants 20009508 and 20018132)  &#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Author contributions<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>S.K.B.: conceptualization; data curation; formal analysis; methodology; software; validation; visualization; roles\/writing, original draft, review, and editing. A.K.P.: roles\/writing, original draft, review, and editing. Y-H.Y.: formal analysis; funding acquisition; investigation; methodology; project administration; resources; software; supervision; validation; visualization; roles\/writing, original draft, review, and editing  &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Highlights Abstract This review emphasizes the urgent need for food waste upcycling as a response to the mounting global food waste crisis. Focusing on polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) as an alternative to traditional plastics, it examines the potential of various food wastes as feedstock for microbial fermentation and PHA production. The upcycling of food waste including cheese [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":142588,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"This review emphasizes the urgent need for food waste upcycling as a response to the mounting global food waste crisis","footnotes":""},"categories":[17143],"tags":[5847,7676,5528,15515],"supplier":[233,23985,23984,14138],"class_list":["post-142583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recycling","tag-bioplastics","tag-pha","tag-sustainability","tag-upcycling","supplier-food-and-agriculture-organization-of-the-united-nations-fao","supplier-https-www-keit-re-kr-index-essida2","supplier-https-english-motie-go-kr-anchor1","supplier-national-research-foundation-nrf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142583"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=142583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}