As is well known, fossil fuels and food waste are significant contributors to the climate change crisis. Conversion of food waste to energy can help solving or mitigating these problems by providing a sustainable energy alternative to fossil fuels. This book provides an overview of technologies to convert food waste to energy. It explains the rationale behind this approach and describes different methods of turning food waste into energy, factors affecting the productivity of these processes, and the advantages and challenges of these technologies. Current research in the field and selected case studies are also described.

Describes technologies to convert food waste to useful energy source Explains the benefits and challenges of food waste to energy methods and factors affecting their productivity Uses real-world examples that show waste-to-energy technologies in action

Autorentext

Mónica L. Chávez-González , PhD, is a Research Professor at the School of Chemical Sciences of the Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila, Mexico. Her expertise is in the areas of fermentation processes, microbial biotransformation, enzyme production, industrial food waste valorization, extraction of bioactive compounds (antioxidants), and chemical characterization.

She is the General Coordinator and founder of the Bioprocessing Mx-LATAM Network, whose objective is to promote R&D in the area of bioprocessing through collaboration between universities, institutes, research centers, and relevant industries in Mexico and Latin America. She has been awarded the Latin American Women in Chemistry Award in the category of ""Emerging Leader,"" granted by the American Chemical Society and the Latin American Federation of Chemical Associations (FLAQ).

Pedro Aguilar-Zárate , PhD is a full Professor at Tecnológico Nacional de México/ Instituto Tecnológico de Ciudad Valles. He holds a PhD in Food Science and Technology from the Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila, Mexico. Dr. Aguilar-Zarate has coauthored over 50 articles that were published in indexed journals, 24 book chapters, and authored 4 books on topics in food science and technology and biotechnology.

A. K. Haghi is a retired professor and has written, co-written, edited or co-edited more than 1000 publications, including books, book chapters, and papers in refereed journals with over 4000 citations and h-index of 33, according to Google Scholar database. He was appointed as Honorary Research Associate (HRA) of Bioprocesses and Bioproducts Group, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila, Saltillo, Coahuila, México. He has also been appointed as Honorary Research Associate (HRA) at Chemistry Centre, University of Coimbra, Portugal and held a Senior Research Fellowship (SRF) at the Tbilisi State University.

Professor Haghi holds a BSc in urban and environmental engineering from the University of North Carolina (USA) and holds two MSc degrees, one in mechanical engineering from North Carolina State University (USA) and another one in applied mechanics, acoustics, and materials from the Université de Technologie de Compiègne (France). He was awarded a PhD in engineering sciences at Université de Franche-Comté (France). He is a regular reviewer of leading international journals.

Inhalt

Introduction to Food Waste-to-energy Conversion Technologies.- Sustainable Approaches and Characteristics.- Current Conversion Technologies and Case Studies.- Biogas Production from Food Waste.