Alfonso Jiménez
University of Alicante, Spain
Title: Valorization of agro-food residues for the synthesis of biomaterials for industrial applications
Biography
Biography: Alfonso Jiménez
Abstract
The need to both avoid waste and find new renewable resources has led to a new and promising research avenue: The use of food supply chain waste (FSC) as a renewable biorefinery feedstock. Residues produced by the FSC contain valuable functionalised molecules, such as flavonoids, waxes, biopolymers, fatty acids or lignocellulosic materials with potential to be used as chemicals to be used as bioadditives and building blocks for biopolymers. The main current uses of the food supply chain, agricultural and forestry residues are low value-added, mainly meeting needs that concern farming activities (bed and feed for livestocks), soil fertilization and compensation (composting) or energetic requirements (pellets for combustion). These uses do not cover the real potential of this feedstock from technologic and profitability points of view. The incorporation of natural additives in a variety of commercialized products depicts the current trend for the limitation of the use of synthetic substances. Many industrial sectors are currently focused on the utilization of functional biomolecules in order to offer advance, more economic and more eco-friendly products. Due to their abundance and renewability, there has been a great deal of interest in utilizing lignocellulosic wastes for the production and recovery of many value-added products such as nanocellulose. This presentation will give a general overview of the current situation of the valorization of FSC to yield high value biomaterials with potential in key industrial sectors, such as food packaging, biomedical, nutraceutical food, cosmetics and many others.