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REVIEW article

Front. Chem. Eng.
Sec. Environmental Chemical Engineering
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fceng.2024.1463785
This article is part of the Research Topic Biorefineries: Current Configurations, Sustainability and Economy View all 3 articles

The role of solid-state fermentation to transform existing waste treatment plants based on composting and anaerobic digestion into modern organic waste-based biorefineries, in the framework of circular bioeconomy

Provisionally accepted
Antoni Sánchez Antoni Sánchez *Adriana Artola Adriana Artola Xavier Font Xavier Font Javier Moral Vico Javier Moral Vico
  • Autonomous University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Biorefineries are emerging facilities that are planned to transform existing waste treatment plants based on composting and/or anaerobic digestion into complex installations where biological and physicochemical processes coexist to maximize the recovery of renewable energy and valuable bioproducts. Biorefineries are mainly based on the use of several typologies of organic waste as starting material. This feature, together with the fact that biorefineries are supposed to be carbon neutral, has provoked that two biotechnologies arise as the key to have a successful biorefinery in economic and environmental terms: anaerobic digestion, a consolidated renewable energy provider, and solid-state fermentation, an emerging technology, derived from composting, to act as a supplier of a new generation of biorefinery products that include enzymes, bioplastics, biopesticides, biosurfactants and bioestimulants, among others. This review explores the importance of the role of anaerobic digestion and solid-state fermentation in novel biorefineries, highlighting their obvious advantages and their main challenges, in a specific moment where anaerobic digestion and, in consequence, digestate, are undergoing an exponential increase as a renewable energy source and a predominant organic waste.

    Keywords: Organic waste, Solid-state bioconversion, Biomaterials, bioproducts, Renewable Energy, Zero-waste strategy

    Received: 12 Jul 2024; Accepted: 07 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Sánchez, Artola, Font and Moral Vico. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Antoni Sánchez, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.