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Special Issue "Upcycling Biowaste into Biobased Products"

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Waste and Recycling".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 November 2023 | Viewed by 4298

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Elli Maria Barampouti

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Guest Editor

Unit of Environmental Science & Technology, School of Chemical Engineering, Zographou Campus, National Technical University of Athens, 15780 Athens, Greece
Interests: waste and wastewater treatment; agro-industrial waste; anaerobic digestion; composting and other waste treatment technologies; circular economy; waste-to-energy; recycling

Dr. Sofia Th. Mai

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Unit of Environmental Science & Technology, School of Chemical Engineering, Zographou Campus, National Technical University of Athens, 15780 Athens, Greece
Interests: municipal and industrial waste management technologies; the recovery of useful, commercial products (biofuels, chemical blocks) from waste recovery; integrated waste management lines

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In order to successfully transition to a sustainable, biobased society and circular economy, the implementation of processes able to recover biofuels as well as bioproducts from renewable raw materials is of vital importance. Novel and emerging processing technologies can enable the recycling and valorisation of biowaste into higher-value biobased products (e.g., biobased chemicals and plastics, nutrients, human food or animal feed ingredients and proteins), thereby generating significant economic, social and environmental benefits.

Thus, this Special Issue aims to focus on upcycling biowaste into biobased products to communicate up-to-date knowledge to experts working in the field, as well as interested readers. The goal of this Special Issue is to outline the optimal use of biowaste for the production of a wide array of biobased products by demonstrating innovative technologies. Types of biowaste considered can include, but are not limited to, food and kitchen waste, sludge from the treatment of wastewater, residues from gardens and parks and organic industrial biowaste. The ultimate goal is to showcase possible pathways with the potential to boost the integration of a zero-waste circular economy, reduce resource depletion and as create job opportunities. We also hope to bring to light the main regulatory barriers and technical and financial hurdles faced during the development of such schemes.

Dr. Elli Maria Barampouti
Dr. Sofia Th. Mai
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

animal feed biobased products
biofuels
biopolymers
biorefinery
biowaste valorisation

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

Open AccessArticle

Evaluation of Valorisation Strategies to Improve Grape Stems’ Nutritional Value as an Ingredient for Ruminants’ Diets

Aser García-Rodríguez

Idoia Goiri

Raquel Atxaerandio

Jaime Zufía

Estíbaliz Sáez de Cámara

and

Bruno Iñarra

Sustainability 2023, 15(15), 11951; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151511951 - 03 Aug 2023

Viewed by 426

Abstract

Grape stems are a by-product of wine production which is managed as a waste. Animal feeding arises as a potential alternative. However, its practical use may be compromised by its high lignin content. In this sense, hydrolysis emerges as a strategy to increase fibre digestibility. In addition, due to its high and variable moisture content, it should be dried to prevent microbial deterioration and a washing pre-treatment to reduce sugar content becomes necessary to minimize drying problems due to sugar melting at high temperatures. Within this framework, this study assessed the effect of washing and three different hydrolysis on the nutritive value of grape stems. A factorial design was carried out, with washing (with or without) and hydrolysis (without, enzymatic, alkali, and alkali-enzymatic) as factors. When the washing pre-treatment was not applied, only the alkali hydrolysis process maintained in vitro digestibility, but at the expense of a lower fermentation efficiency. When the washing pre-treatment was applied, fibre contents were similar among hydrolysis processes, but the alkali hydrolysis improved in vitro digestibility with similar fermentation efficiency. In conclusion, the alkali hydrolysis maintained or improved the grape stem nutritive value depending on whether the washing pre-treatment was applied or not. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Upcycling Biowaste into Biobased Products)

Open AccessArticle

Characterization and Risk Assessment of Different-Origin Biochars Applied in Agricultural Experiments

Maria A. Lilli

Nikolaos V. Paranychianakis

Konstantinos Lionoudakis

Maria L. Saru

Styliani Voutsadaki

Anna Kritikaki

Konstantinos Komnitsas

and

Nikolaos P. Nikolaidis

Sustainability 2023, 15(11), 9036; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15119036 - 02 Jun 2023

Viewed by 494

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the impacts of biochar amendments derived from different feedstocks (sewage sludge (SS), olive-mill waste (OMW), compost, and sawdust) in land applications. Tomatoes were used as a test crop in four experiments both under greenhouse and field conditions. SS, OMW, and compost biochar treatments presented 17% to 178.5% higher tomato productivity than control, verifying that biochar behaves as a plant-growth bio-stimulant. This impact is related to the raw material since sawdust biochar did not present results as positive as the other types of biochars. The physicochemical characterization of biochars and their comparison with international and European standards confirmed the safety of their use. A risk-assessment analysis of tomato consumption was conducted in order to explore unfavorable effects on human health. The estimation of cumulative non-carcinogenic risk, found to be between 8.25 × 10⁻³ and 4.23 × 10⁻², and cancer risk for Cr(VI), found to be between 6.56 × 10⁻⁶ and 5.2 × 10⁻⁵, suggested no risk of potential chronic exposure due to tomato consumption cultivated in biochar-amended soils. This study may be used as a recommendation for farmers and agriculturists for maximizing the yield of agricultural crops in the Mediterranean region, improving soil health, and contributing to the sustainable management of agroecosystems. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Upcycling Biowaste into Biobased Products)

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Open AccessArticle

Investigating the Environmental Benefits of Novel Films for the Packaging of Fresh Tomatoes Enriched with Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Compounds through Life Cycle Assessment

Christina Tsouti

Christina Papadaskalopoulou

Angeliki Konsta

Panagiotis Andrikopoulos

Margarita Panagiotopoulou

and

Sustainability 2023, 15(10), 7838; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15107838 - 10 May 2023

Viewed by 1850

Abstract

Food systems account for 21–37% of total net anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, in the European Union, the retail and consumption stages account for half of the total food waste produced across the entire food supply chain. For this, there is a continuous development of novel packaging materials to extend the shelf life of fresh products and thus reduce food waste produced at these stages. The aim of the present research is to examine the environmental performance of such materials enriched with antioxidant and antimicrobial compounds by considering their effect on the shelf-life extension of packed fresh tomatoes. In particular, two novel packaging films, a film with incorporated tomato leaf-stem extract and Flavomix through extrusion and a film coated with zein nanofibers containing the aforementioned bio-active compounds through electrospinning were studied for the packaging of fresh tomatoes and compared to conventional polypropylene packaging film. An antioxidant effect was recorded for both films achieving a shelf life prolongation of three days. Moreover, both films exhibited in vitro antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. In addition, antimicrobial activity was observed against yeast and molds and the total viable bacterial count in packed fresh tomatoes. The environmental benefits were evaluated using a life cycle assessment. The results indicated a decrease in the environmental impacts by 14% considering the entire food supply chain for both novel films. The environmental performance of novel film production by extrusion shows an increased impact of 31% compared to conventional film, while nanocoating shows an increased impact of 18%. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Upcycling Biowaste into Biobased Products)

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Open AccessArticle

The Impact of Sewage-Sludge- and Olive-Mill-Waste-Derived Biochar Amendments to Tomato Cultivation

Maria A. Lilli

Nikolaos V. Paranychianakis

Konstantinos Lionoudakis

Anna Kritikaki

Styliani Voutsadaki

Maria L. Saru

Konstantinos Komnitsas

and

Nikolaos P. Nikolaidis

Sustainability 2023, 15(5), 3879; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15053879 - 21 Feb 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1110

Abstract

This study elucidated the impact of sewage-sludge (SS) and olive-mill-waste (OMW) biochar amendments to soil using tomatoes as a test crop. Four treatments were evaluated: the “control” with no biochar amendment, two SS biochar treatments with the addition of 10 t/ha and 25 t/ha, respectively, and an OMW biochar treatment with the addition of 25 t/ha. Higher yields were observed in both SS biochar treatments, providing evidence that biochar acts as a plant bio-stimulant. Biochar application had positive impacts on carbon sequestration and soil structure. The uptake of heavy metals by all plant parts was very low, indicating that biochar is an appropriate product for land application. Biochar dose and type induced changes in the composition due to the different unique species and biodiversity of microbial communities. Venn diagrams revealed that the majority of the identified taxa were shared among the treatments, and only a small proportion of them were unique in bulk soil between treatments. In the rhizosphere, the OMW-biochar-treated plants showed a higher number of unique taxa. Microbiota structure plays a major role in the stimulation of plant growth; however, further research is needed to understand the impact of these shifts in the functioning of agroecosystems. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Upcycling Biowaste into Biobased Products)

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