title: Food waste-to-energy conversion technologies: current status and future directions.
abstract: Food waste represents a significantly fraction of municipal solid waste. Proper management and recycling of huge volumes of food waste are required to reduce its environmental burdens and to minimize risks to human health. Food waste is indeed an untapped resource with great potential for energy production. Utilization of food waste for energy conversion currently represents a challenge due to various reasons. These include its inherent heterogeneously variable compositions, high moisture contents and low calorific value, which constitute an impediment for the development of robust, large scale, and efficient industrial processes. Although a considerable amount of research has been carried out on the conversion of food waste to renewable energy, there is a lack of comprehensive and systematic reviews of the published literature. The present review synthesizes the current knowledge available in the use of technologies for food-waste-to-energy conversion involving biological (e.g. anaerobic digestion and fermentation), thermal and thermochemical technologies (e.g. incineration, pyrolysis, gasification and hydrothermal oxidation). The competitive advantages of these technologies as well as the challenges associated with them are discussed. In addition, the future directions for more effective utilization of food waste for renewable energy generation are suggested from an interdisciplinary perspective.
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, 1 Engineering Drive 2, Singapore 117576, Republic of Singapore.
authors.forename: Thi Phuong Thuy
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Pham
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, 1 Engineering Drive 2, Singapore 117576, Republic of Singapore.
authors.forename: Rajni
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kaushik
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, 1 Engineering Drive 2, Singapore 117576, Republic of Singapore.
authors.forename: Ganesh K
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Parshetti
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, 1 Engineering Drive 2, Singapore 117576, Republic of Singapore.
authors.forename: Russell
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mahmood
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore, 1 Engineering Drive 2, Singapore 117576, Republic of Singapore. Electronic address: ceerbala@nus.edu.sg.
authors.forename: Rajasekhar
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Balasubramanian
mesh_terms: D000693:Anaerobiosis; D005285:Fermentation; D005735:Garbage; D017745:Incineration; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D062611:Solid Waste / Q000032:analysis*; D018505:Waste Management / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D062611:Solid Waste
keywords: Anaerobic digestion; Fermentation; Food waste; Gasification; Hydrothermal carbonization; Incineration