| Summary: | Burgeoning global demand for fossil feedstock in the production of fuels and chemicals, coupled with rising costs of waste disposal routes are driving manufacturing industry to innovate towards greater resource efficiency. A desirable approach is the valorisation of industrial eo- products, including food waste. Food wastes is an underutilised resource with potential to be used as a raw material in a range of products including biofuel, thus avoiding conventional lower value treatment routes of animal feed use and composting and, better still, avoiding the environmentally and financially costly disposal routes of, incineration and landfill. This research, carried out under the framework of a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) between Brocklesby Ltd and the Green Chemistry Centre at the University of York, has delivered a number of protocols and methodologies to valorise biodiesel industry eo-products (glycerine) and food waste. The project focussed on bettering the production of used cooking oil-based (UCO) biodiesel: soapstock side streams were characterised with a number of analytical techniques (GC, GC-MS, ESI, IR, NMR and others) and optimisation protocols were developed which lead to the production of a higher grade glycerine eo-product with commercial value. The overall strategy of the project linked the quality of the eo-product (glycerine and food waste), with a number of chemistries and subsequent commercial applications. Amongst the chemistries attempted (esterifications, oligomerisation, hydrogenolysis, glycerol carbonate production and others) the use of a heterogeneous catalyst at low temperature (below 150°C) l-step reactions was prioritised. Some of the products (glycerol acetates) obtained showed potential for use as plasticisers in various applications. In addition, valorisation strategies for two Brocklesby-generated food eo/products (as liquid effluent and oil/fat rendering) were evaluated, in addition to alternative treatments anaerobic digestion for industrial liquid effluent and hydrothermal and microwave-assisted extraction for animal by-products.
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