Cavitation as a zero-waste circular economy process to convert citrus processing waste into biopolymers in high demand

Abstract

Cavitation in water only, no matter whether hydrodynamic or acoustic, is a zero-waste circular economy process to convert industrial citrus processing waste into high-performance polysaccharides in high demand in a single-step at room temperature and ambient pressure using a modest amount of electricity as the only energy input. Following previous reports in which we used hydrodynamic cavitation, we now use an industrial acoustic sonicator to demonstrate the general viability of cavitation to convert biowaste residue of the industrial squeezing of pigmented sweet orange (Citrus sinensis) into highly bioactive “IntegroPectin” pectin and micronized cellulose “CytroCell”. From biomedicine through advanced composite membranes, said biomaterials hold great applicative potential. We conclude discussing the economic and technical feasibility of industrial implementation of the “CytroCav” process.