Circular bioeconomy solutions: driving anaerobic digestion of waste streams towards production of high value medium chai
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REVIEW PAPER
Circular bioeconomy solutions: driving anaerobic digestion of waste streams towards production of high value medium chain fatty acids Ajay Menon
. James G. Lyng
Received: 22 July 2020 / Accepted: 24 October 2020 Ó Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract This review outlines the road map for the production of medium chain fatty acids (MCFAs) from organic wastes by adapting the conventionally methanogenic process of anaerobic digestion (AD) for the production of volatile acids and the subsequent chain elongation, as well as for the production of hydrogen. The article analyses the state-of-the-art of these processes and discusses the modifications involved, the bottlenecks, challenges and opportunities. In particular, the various methods of inhibition of methanogenesis are described, their applicability is discussed and investigation of the use of naturally occurring inhibitors like bromoform is suggested. The review concludes that the using AD for MCFA production has a strong potential as a circular economy solution, avoiding many issues with the use of AD for biogas production while creating more economically viable products. The main bottleneck identified here is the downstream separation and extraction of the products. Standardization across studies and implementation of the various methods at pilot scale levels are critical to develop a clearer idea of the viability of the MCFA production process. More in-depth studies on the inhibition process and detailed A. Menon (&) J. G. Lyng UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland e-mail: [email protected] J. G. Lyng e-mail: [email protected]
cost–benefit and life cycle analysis are also recommended to for the use of this process and for its acceptance as a bioeconomy solution. Keywords Medium chain fatty acids Anaerobic digestion Circular bioeconomy Waste management Methanogenesis Inhibition
1 Introduction The world is currently grappling with three interconnected problems: the explosion in waste generation due to rising population and consumption; depleting fuel reserves and land for resource production; and last but not least, continued failure to curb greenhouse emissions. These issues for the most part are tackled individually: for example 249 million tonnes of municipal waste generated in the European Union in 2017 were also mainly disposed through landfilling (23%) and incineration (29%) (Castillo-Gime´nez et al. 2019). This typically results in the solution for one problem exacerbating another problem, leading to the solution being viewed as suboptimal at best and counterproductive at worst. An emerging solution that take all three problems into account is the implementation of circular economy where wastes are used as resources for creating products in an economical and environmental sustainable fashion (Domenech and
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Rev Environ Sci Biotechnol
Bahn-Walkowiak 2019). Biowaste is a prime contender for the institution of this solution as it
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