BIOWASTE-TO-WEALTH

Prof. C. Xu et al., have been reported on “Waste-to-wealth: biowaste valorization into valuable bio(nano)materials” in Chemical Society Reviews on September 2019 [1]. They mentioned that “The waste-to-wealth concept aims to promote a future sustainable lifestyle where waste valorization is seen not only for its intrinsic benefits to the environment but also to develop new technologies to treat waste to generate energy, recycle materials, livelihoods, jobs and extract resources of value”.

Figure 1. Waste to wealth. Source

In recent years, the potential of biowastes (BW) has received increasing attention by academic and industrial communities aiming to identify strategies to convert low-value waste into new materials and products, and concurrently, developing technologies and business models based on waste-to-value enterprises by the integration of biowaste processing within biorefinery schemes has been described [2].

Figure 2. Most common and widely available biowaste feedstocks [1].

In this respect, fish/shrimp waste, fly ash, lignocellulosic food derived waste, pig bristles, cattle manure and household waste are becoming model examples of BW (Figure 2).

BW are becoming increasingly interesting for the preparation of both silica and silicate salts. Hydrated amorphous silica is naturally occurring in leaves, husks, blades, hulls, roots and stems of many terrestrial and marine plants, including wheat, rice, horsetails, oats, barley, grasses, and algae [3]. Among BW, one of the most silica-rich sources is rice husks (RHs) which are largely available, being typically 20–22 wt% of rice grains (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Amorphous silica from rice husks [4].

The silica content amounts to ca. 20% of RHs’ dry weight which means that at the current rate of estimated global rice production of 500 Mt per year, applications of bio-silica and its derivatives are becoming attractive [5].

Another interesting material is carbon dots, usually abbreviated as CNDs (carbon nanodots) or C-dots, which are nano-sized (＞10 nm) quasi-spherical carbon particles containing a carbon core functionalized with some of the most common groups, primarily carbonyl and hydroxyl moieties. C-dots have been and are therefore extensively investigated for application in biosensing, bioimaging, drug delivery, photocatalysis, photovoltaic devices, and optoelectronics. In this respect, the use of natural products including BW as starting materials for the synthesis of C-dots has been reviewed in two recent papers [6].

Figure 4. Hydrothermal treatment of pomelo peel for the preparation of fluorescent CPs sensitive for Hg²⁺ ion detection [7].

For example, hydrothermal-assisted methods have proved effective for a variety of BW such as fruit peels, fish scales and rice husks. The heating of an aqueous dispersion of pomelo peel waste at 200 °C for 3 h was reported to produce stable dispersions of C-dots of 2-4 nm, which upon excitation at 365 nm, showed a PL emission peak at 444 nm and an intense blue color under UV light (6.9% quantum yield) (Figure 4) [7].

Biomaterials such as collagen, collagen-chitosan biocomposites, chitin and chitosan, gelatin, protein, calcium phosphates cellulosic fibers, hydroxyapatite, nanostructured hydroxyapatite, mesoporous hydroxyapatite NPs, hydroxyapatite scaffolds, bioplastic, nanosilica, cellulose nanocrystals derived from biowastes such as silver carp skin, goatskin, fish (Labeo rohita) scales, fish waste, fish fin and chicken feather waste, fishbone, groundnut and coconut shell, pig bones and teeth, eggshells, fish scales, shrimp shells, rice husk, cotton linters and kraft pulp, respectively.

Perspectives for the applications of these biomaterials span most varied sectors from the biomedical area for drug delivery and tissue engineering, to environmental remediation, catalysis, electronics, energy storage, etc., and they are contributing drivers to enhance scientific and technological knowledge in these fields.

However, many such investigations are still at an early stage and need to be expanded beyond the discovery of a novel procedure or process, to an in-depth analysis of both technical aspects and socio-ecological boundaries including optimization of purification protocols, extraction yields, up-scaling issues, energy balance and costs, environmental emissions, and public acceptability and approval of new technologies.

References

[1]. C. Xu, M. Nasrollahzadeh, M. Selva, Z. Issaabadi, R. Luque, Chem. Soc. Rev., 2019, 48, 4791.

[2]. From Waste to Value: Valorisation Pathways for Organic Waste Streams in Circular Bioeconomies, ed. A. Klitkou and A. Fevolden, Taylor & Francis, 2019.

[3]. C. M. Zaremba and G. D. Stucky, Curr. Opin. Solid State Mater. Sci., 1996, 1, 425-429.

[4]. W. Wang, J. C. Martin, X. Fan, A. Han, Z. Luo and L. Sun, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2012, 4, 977-981.

[5]. FAO, Rice market monitor, http://www.fao.org/3/I9243EN/i9243en.pdf, last access February 14, 2019.

[6]. X. Zhang, M. Jiang, N. Niu, Z. Chen, S. Li, S. Liu and J. Li, ChemSusChem, 2018, 11, 11-24.

[7]. W. Lu, X. Qin, S. Liu, G. Chang, Y. Zhang, Y. Luo, A. M. Asiri, A. O. A. Youbi and X. Sun, Anal. Chem., 2012, 84, 5351-5357.

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Dr. A. S. GANESHRAJA

National College

Thiruchirappalli, Tamilnadu, India

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Dr. K. Rajkumar

Dr. S. Chandrasekar

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