Sustainable biorefinery approaches in the valorization of agro-food industrial residues for biofuel production: Economic and future perspectives

Abstract

Fossil fuel depletion causes severe energy demand throughout the world, due to industrialization, transportation and human activities posing significant challenges to global sustainability. Biofuel emerged as a potential synthetic fuel generated from various renewable feedstocks addressing the waste management and reducing the reliance on fossil fuels. Among different feedstocks, agricultural and food waste biomass serve as a valuable source for biofuel production due to its high lignocellulosic content, accessibility, and abundance. Agricultural waste biomass have remarkably emerged as potential feedstock for the production of biofuel due to its high lignocellulose content, abundance and cost effectiveness. Similarly, food wastes composed of lipid, carbohydrate and nutrients also offer a significant potential to be served as a feedstock for biofuel production. This review highlights recent development in the pretreatment and biorefinery processes for biofuel production. The study explores the sustainable conversion approaches focusing on advanced treatment, conversion technologies, life cycle analysis, and economic feasibility of the biofuel production. The techno-economic analysis and environmental perspectives are discussed to assess the feedstock selectivity, ecosystem viability, conversion process and production cost.