Agro-Industrial Biowaste Valorization towards Sustainability and Circular Economy

Abstract

The biorefinery concept, comparable to a petrochemical refinery, is fast gaining attention.The application of this concept involves different studies and the development of industrystandards. Moreover, the use of agro-industrial wastes for the production of value-addedproducts and energy vectors have a significant prospect to revolutionize the industry.Consequently, in this chapter, different alternatives were proposed to transform green applepomace (AP) from a cider industry, grape marc (GM), and stalk (GS) from a winery, quince(QW) from the jam industry, and pumpkin seeds (PS). To reach the premise of “zero waste”,an eco-friendly process of polyphenol extraction and subsequently pyro-gasification was proposed for the AP, GM, and GS. For the QW, a first pectin extraction step followed by pyro-gasification of solid waste was proposed. Finally, the PS was used to produce salad snacks. This work offers three methods to reach a high valorization of different agro-industrialwastes, promoting the development of sustainable processes. These strategies could have apositive economic and environmental impact, reaching a cleaner production in line with theconcept of a circular economy.