About this Research Topic

Background

Today, increased consideration is given to the production of biofuels and bio-based materials from biomass residues.
A biorefinery model including transportation biofuels production is an alternative solution to the added value for improving the feasibility of co-processing waste-derived biocrudes in petroleum intermediate.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, approximately 2.5 billion tons of all food which is produced for individual consumption is wasted annually. Moreover, about 46 % of the total forest biomass is managed as waste, constituting over 37 m3 hectare. Forestry residue and food waste are an inexpensive and affordable resource, with high energy-density that can potentially be converted into drop-in transportation biofuels and biochemicals with thermochemical properties closer to petroleum-derived fuels.

Carbon containing, lipid, and carbohydrate compounds present in food waste can be converted into sustainable advanced bioenergy via different technologies. Particularly, advanced biofuels from food waste are projected to be compatible with existing infrastructure to produce biomass-based hydrocarbon alternative due to their low-greenhouse emissions. However, conversion of biowaste into bioenergetic fuels requires a wide-ranging understanding in science and engineering.
Furthermore, this emphasizes that the knowledge of biomass feedstocks and bio-oil production can contribute to develop a sustainable pre-treatment-upgrading process approach within lab-scale value chain to allow in-depth understanding and optimization of the process parameters. Among them, combined extraction technologies and hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) with and without solvent have been demonstrated as an energetically favorable approach. Previous findings have demonstrated that HTL can successfully convert biowaste into biocrude oil with relatively high heating value (HHV) closer to synthetic crude oil. Importantly, a pre-treatment development can be further selective to enhance the carbon distribution and simultaneously reduce other heteroatom compounds such as nitrogenous and oxygenates compounds, leading to a superior quality of hydrotreated advanced biofuels.

The aim of the current Research Topic is to cover promising, recent, and novel research trending in the emerging extraction-like, hydrothermal liquefaction, and hydrotreatment methods.
Areas to be covered in this Research Topic may include, but are not limited to:
• Hydrothermal liquefaction with and without solvent
• Hydrogenation
• Pyrolysis
• Bioconversion
• Gasification

This Research Topic welcomes Research articles, Review articles, Mini Review and Perspectives.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• ... View all formats

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Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review

Keywords: Biowaste, biocrude, biochar, biofuels, conversion technologies

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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