Conversion of food waste to bioenergy and biochemicals via anaerobic digestion

The huge increase in food waste is attracting global interests regarding its management. How to treat food waste with sustainable technologies is the key concern. Food waste can be served as a suitable substrate in bioprocess, in particular anaerobic digestion, for converting into bioenergy and biochemicals. Therein, various products such as hydrogen/methane, carboxylic acids, sugar, amino acids are generated from different steps during anaerobic digestion process that is, hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis, and methanogenesis. Based on this concept, biodiesel, biopolymer, bioelectricity, and biofertilizer can also be generated for food waste valorization when integrating several bioprocesses. Achieving the strategy of source recovery with the development of anaerobic digestion technology could benefit to the biocircular economy. This chapter highlights the proper anaerobic steps that can be used to produce bioenergy and biochemicals via different integrated bioprocesses. The implications of source recovery during anaerobic digestion and its challenges are demonstrated as well.