Economic analysis and environmental assessment of an integrated food waste biorefinery for the co-production of bio-based polyurethane foam and other value-added products

Food waste is a pivotal component of municipal solid waste that must be adequately addressed. Many tend to utilize food waste for the production of various value-added products based on a ‘waste-to-wealth’ concept since it contains significant quantities of diverse nutrients. However, in many cases, current research focused on the recovery of fermentable sugars rather than a complete grasp of all the nutrients, especially for the lipid fraction which was separated out after enzymatic hydrolysis and centrifugation. Hence, this study demonstrated a comprehensive integrated biorefinery that fully utilized different fractions from food waste to produce value-added products. After hydrolysis, the oil phase was extracted for the synthesis of bio-based rigid polyurethane (PU) foam. And aqueous hydrolysate was exploited to produce bio-based sophorolipids. In addition, further economic analysis and environmental assessment were performed to validate the economic competitiveness and the sustainability performance of the integrated food waste biorefinery framework. This work aims to demonstrate an economically-favoured and environmentally-friendly food waste valorization system that comprehensively values food waste to address the urgent need to replace fossil-based plastic materials and the pursuit of bio-based materials.