Preface_2020_Waste-Biorefinery

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Preface
Where there is righteousness in the heart, there is beauty in the character. When there is
beauty in the character, there is harmony in the home. When there is harmony in the
home, there is order in the nation. When there is order in the nation, there is peace in
the world.
A. P. J. Abdul Kalam (1931e2015, Aerospace Scientist and the 11th President of India)
Rapid industrialization, population growth, unplanned expansion of urban zones and in-
frastructures, and inadequate policies have led to the mismanagement of solid waste in devel-
oped nations as well as poorer countries in the developing world. Solid and liquid waste, both
the generation and disposal, is a topic of major public health and environmental concern.
More often, these issues are engendered due to poor waste collection systems, lack of govern-
mental or municipal services, limited budget, weak management policies, and lack of an effi-
cient organizational infrastructure, among others. Therefore, solid waste piles up in streets,
backyards, alleys, and illegal dumpsites; people scavenge them to earn a living. In many
countries, these nonsanitary landfills have caused austere problems, including air, water, and
soil pollution, and has induced the spread of disease-causing vectors. However, from a
resource recovery viewpoint, solid waste can be considered a treasure house of enormous
wealth, wherein electricity can be produced by combustion/incineration of the solid waste
found in landfills. With the advent of advanced equipment, new processes, and better under-
standing of the mechanisms involved in biological and engineering sciences, solid waste can
be efficiently transformed into energy, fuels, and value-added products. The solid wastes
include a mixture of biological, combustible, and noncombustible materials such as biomass,
grass clippings, wood, leaves, food waste, paper, cardboard, leather products, plastics,
bedding materials, resins, metals, glass, etc.
By applying the concepts of pollution prevention, resource recovery, and cleaner production,
a biorefinery can be defined as a facility that integrates different biomass conversion process
and equipment to produce a wide range of biobased products such as biofuels, power, heat,
and platform chemicals. A biorefinery can also be used to represent a stand-alone process, a
plant or a group of synergistically linked facilities, e.g., ecoindustrial parks. The main aim of
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all these facilities are to integrate and apply the best engineering, biological, and manage-
ment practices to minimize the impact on solid, liquid, and gaseous wastes on human health
and the environment, convert waste into several value-added product streams, and sustainably
manage the existing resources. Thus, the concept of a biorefinery has been constantly
evolving, and a systematic transformation of the facilities has been envisioned in recent
years. For example, the conventional biorefinery (first-gen) uses agricultural biomass to pro-
duce bioethanol or biodiesel, whereas the second and third Gen biorefineries uses advanced
processes using lignocellulosic biomass, cereals, forestry biomass, algal biomass, waste
gases, industrial sludges, oil residues, food waste, and high-strength wastewater streams to
produce chemicals and energy. Depending on the source and characteristics of the raw mate-
rials, the processes can be either chemical, biological, thermochemical, and mechanical, or a
combination of these processes.
Therefore, as citizens, we have to change our perspective to see how waste can be used as a
secondary resource for the production of energy and other materials. In order to meet the
growing demand of fuels, biofuels are emerging as an alternative clean fuel to replace the
conventional fossil fuels. According to the European Union (EU) Energy Commission, by
the year 2020, the EU aims to have 10% of the transport fuel of every EU country come from
renewable sources such as biofuels. The fuel suppliers are also required to reduce the green-
house gas intensity of the EU fuel mix by 6% by 2020 in comparison to 2010. Anew, due to
the rising energy demand in the market, novel research areas have started to focus on
resource recovery, and a galaxy of new technologies have been successfully tested, both at
the lab and pilot-scale. Although all biorefinery-based processes are expected to produce
fewer emissions and support sustainable local bioeconomy, the overall environmental impli-
cations and life-cycle impact analysis are still being studied. In this line of progressive
research, there is still a lot to be done, and interestingly, standardization of protocols and
methods should be documented clearly. Although regulations are well-established and imple-
mented for biomethane and natural gas, the fuels, lubricants, and hydraulic fluids produced
from mineral oil or biomass origin still does not have standardized methods of sampling,
analysis, and testing, terminology, and specifications for application in the transportation, in-
dustrial, and domestic sectors.
To address some of the practical issues discussed above and to provide a general perspective
of the different types of biorefineries, the first volume of the book entitled “Waste biorefinery:
Potential and perspectives” was published in the year 2018. The book explored some of the
recent developments in biochemical and thermochemical methods of waste-to-energy conver-
sion and the potential generated by different kinds of biomass in more decentralized
biorefineries. To address the most recent advancements made in the field of biorefineries, the
second volume of this book series entitled Waste biorefinery: Integrating biorefinery for waste
valorization has been compiled. This volume presents recent updates on the different types of
biorefineries (e.g., solid waste, lignin residue, agroindustrial waste, lignocellulosic wastes,
food waste, and nonedible oils), the application of multiscale modeling strategies, systems
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approach, life-cycle analysis (LCA), and carbon footprint estimation tools, and it presents
different case studies related to the integration of biorefineries for waste-to-energy and fuels
production. The volume comprises of twenty-five chapters, divided among the following eight
thematic sections:
Session A: Municipal solid wasteebased biorefineries
Section B: Lignocellulosic biomass-based biorefinery
Section C: Food waste and chitin-based biorefinery
Section D: Nonedible oilsebased biorefinery and applications
Section E: Sewage sludge biorefinery
Section F: Modeling and life-cycle analysis studies
Section G: System dynamics and carbon footprints
Section H: Country-specific case studies
In Section A, the challenges and opportunities of applying gasification to municipal solid
waste, its performance for the production of electricity and chemicals, economic consider-
ations, and opportunities for the future development is presented in Chapter 1. The
URBIOFIN demo-scale project presented in Chapter 2 explores the potential of the organic
fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) to produce bioblocks (bioethanol, volatile fatty
acids (VFA), and biogas), biopolymers (short chain [scl-PHA]), medium chain poly-
hydroxyalkanoates (mcl-PHA), and additives (bioethylene and biofertilizers) using a battery
of innovative and integrated physical, chemical, and biological processes.
In Section B, Chapter 3 highlights the working principle and concept of a nozzle reactor with
countercurrent mixing for the upscaling of fast hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of solid
biomass residues and wastes. Chapter 4 presents the advantages, limitations, and practical ap-
plications of an up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) and expanded granular sludge bed
(EGSB) for enhanced resource recovery (mainly biomethane) during wastewater treatment.
Two case studies related to the application of UASB and EGSB systems in olive oil and the
pulp and paper industries have also been discussed in this chapter. The valorizationof
agroindustrial wastes into platform chemicals (e.g. lactic acid, C3) and its derivatives for ap-
plications in pharmaceutical, food, animal feed, dairy, detergent, and cosmetic industries is
covered in Chapter 5. A similar approach has been demonstrated to convert lignocellulosic
biomass for polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) production in Chapter 6. Laboratory-scale and pilot-
scale studies pertaining to the bioconversion of food waste, municipal solid waste, food
processing waste, and agriculture residues to biofertilizers, including the practical field appli-
cations, has been reviewed in Chapter 7. In Chapter 8, the important role of trace elements
(e.g., Fe, Ni, Co) in the methanogenesis step of anaerobic digestion has been discussed from
a mechanism and metabolic engineering view point. The application of biochar for enhanced
biogas production from the anaerobic digestion of food waste has been presented in this
chapter as a case study.
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Chapter 9 of Section C introduces the theory of planned behavior (TPB) that provides a theo-
retical framework to assist in our understanding of the factors influencing behavioral choices.
In this chapter, the current implementation of TPB to predict food consumption pattern and to
promote safe food handling and food-waste recycling in household and commercial sectors
are discussed. In Chapter 10, an overview of chitin, chitosan, its properties and applications,
metabolic pathway of chitin and chitosan, sources of chitin such as crustaceans, insects, and
fungi, extraction methods and bioreactor configurations for chitosan production has been
reviewed.
In Section D, the significant applications of castor plant (Ricinus communis) for the produc-
tion of biofuels (bioethanol, biomethanol) and biochemicals (biophenolics) as well as the pro-
duction of derivatives such as sebacic acid and ricinoleic acid from castor oil has been
demonstrated in Chapter 11. In Chapter 12, the feasibility of biofuel production from non-
edible rubber seed oil has been explained in detail. The useful properties of the rubber seed
oil make it similar to well-known linseed and soybean oil. As the demand for biodiesel is
increasing, the biorefinery approach in the field from rubber seed would be of added advan-
tage. In another approach, the different waste carbon sources and related case studies for bio-
diesel production has been presented in Chapter 13. Meanwhile, in Chapter 14, the
production and the application of biodiesel obtained from various plant species to run the en-
gine and the effect of different biodiesel blends on the performance of the engine has been
discussed. Additionally, the chapter also covers aspects related to the life cycle and cost-
benefit analysis of biodiesel.
In Section E, Chapter 15 explores the possible application of sewage sludge for material and
energy recovery through integrated thermochemical and biochemical conversion processes in
a sewage sludge biorefinery. Section F covers chapters related to modeling and LCA. In this
section, Chapter 16 highlights the application of multiscale models that range from
molecular-level understanding of the biorefinery to a system-scale optimization of processes
and product distribution. An overview of the different modeling approaches that shaped the
current state of biorefineries, the procedure involved in selecting an appropriate model that is
specific to the application, and a generic guideline has been presented in this chapter. In
Chapters 17, 18, and 19, the application of LCA as a practical and methodological tool for
the environmental characterization of a biorefinery has been presented. Accordingly, bio-
refineries present a favorable environmental profile in comparison with fossil-based reference
systems, even though the results show great variability attributed mainly to the biorefineries
configuration and complexity. Specifically, Chapter 18 also highlights the application of
LCA, conventional macroscale management strategies, and laboratory-scale valorization tech-
niques for a food-waste biorefinery. In Chapter 19, a summary of studies focusing on the
LCA of waste biorefineries is presented.
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In Section G, Chapter 20 provides information on the application of a systems dynamics
approach to understand the relationship between the behavior of a system over time and its
underlying structure. The chapter also addresses the various environmental issues and pre-
sents a comprehensive literature review on wood and yard waste management and the imple-
mentation of a systems dynamics approach in the stream of municipal solid waste and
construction and demolition waste. In Chapter 21, the application of LCA in evaluating the
carbon footprints of waste-to-biofuel systems has been explained in detail. The greenhouse
gas emissions associated with the processes are also presented in this chapter with the identi-
fication of the carbon emission hotspots.
Section H deals with different case studies related to biorefineries. Chapter 22 presents case
studies from Germany that are related to the simultaneous production of food and feed, mate-
rials, and energy in accordance to a cascading use of biogenic feedstocks as recommended by
the German Bioeconomy Society. A pulp- and paper-industry case study from India has been
discussed in Chapter 23, and the feasibility of integrating biochemical and thermochemical
processes in a paper and pulp waste biorefinery to produce value-added chemicals, fuel, and
energy has been demonstrated. In Chapter 24, several successful case studies such as landfill
gas recovery from the retrofitted landfills, conversion of food waste and sewage sludge to
biogas, and industrial symbiosis between a paper mill and zinc smelter have been demon-
strated as pathways toward integrated biorefineries. Finally, in Chapter 25, the case study of a
tannery is presented, and the most recent technologies to treat the wastewater discharged
from tanneries is discussed. Options for resource recovery (e.g., by composting of solid
wastes) and substitution of chromium and sodium sulfide are also presented as cleaner pro-
duction options for tanneries.
The individual chapters of this book focus on the application of different biorefinery concepts
in practice (i.e., at the lab, pilot, semiindustrial, and industrial scales), provide options for
enhanced resource recovery from wastes (solid, liquid, and gaseous forms), and analyze the
supporting tools and techniques for monitoring the performance of biorefineries. This book
will serve as a useful resource for chemical engineers, environmental engineers, bio-
technologists, researchers, and students studying biomass, biorefineries, and biofuels/prod-
ucts/processes, as well as chemists, biochemical engineers, and microbiologists working in
industries and government agencies. We strongly hope that readers enjoy reading this book
and find it of immense use.
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We wish to thank and express our appreciation to the multidisciplinary team of authors for
discussion and communicationdabove all, for their scientific contribution to this book. We
also thank reviewers whose suggestions greatly helped to improve the quality of chapters.
Our sincere thanks are due to Elsevier team comprising of Dr. Kostas Marinakis, Senior
Acquisition Editor; Emerald Li, Editorial Project Manager; Mr. Selvaraj Raviraj, Project
Manager; and their production and typesetting teams for supporting us constantly during the
editorial process. We firmly believe that the information contained in this book will enhance
the interdisciplinary scientific skills of readers while also deepening their fundamental knowl-
edge on waste biorefinery.
Editors
Thallada Bhaskar
CSIR-Indian Institute of Petroleum, India
E-mail: thalladab@yahoo.com
Ashok Pandey
CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, India
E-mail: ashokpandey1956@gmail.com
Eldon R. Rene
IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, Netherlands
E-mail: e.raj@un-ihe.org
Daniel Tsang
Hong Kong PolytechnicUniversity, Hong Kong
E-mail: dan.tsang@polyu.edu.hk
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	Preface