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Sugar production from food waste: Process design and optimization, techno-economic analysis, and life cycle
Qing Jin1, Zhichao Wang2, Yilin Li3
1Department of Food Science and Technology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1230 Washington St. SW, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA; School of Food and Agriculture, University of Maine, 5763 Rogers Hall, Room 205, Orono, ME 04469, USA.
Abstract:
This study developed and optimized a cascade process to derive different types of sugars from food waste and assessed the process's economic and environmental viability. From 1 metric ton (MT) of wet food waste, the process recovered 42.9 kg of soluble sugars (including glucose, sucrose, fructose with extraction efficiency of 81.4 %), 55.3 kg of starch hydrolyzed sugars (extraction efficiency of 88.5 %), and 18.9 kg of structural carbohydrate hydrolyzed sugars (extraction efficiency of 91.5 %) under optimal conditions. The most cost-effective scenario-recovering soluble and starch-derived sugars-achieved a minimum selling price of $358/MT, lower than sugar production from conventional agricultural resources. Life cycle assessment showed that sugar production from food waste leads to a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (-68 kg CO2/MT). This study underscores that utilizing food waste for sugar production can deliver substantial economic and environmental benefits, presenting a viable path forward for sustainable bioeconomy practices.
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