Waste to wealth via integrated biorefinery

Industrial development for the past two centuries has been driven by non-renewable resources i.e. fossil fuels and petroleum.

- Kanika Chowdhary

Altogether they supply approximately about 80% of the total energy consumed globally. Nonetheless, for improving the future environmentally sustainable green technologies shall be promoted. At the moment, we all are standing at the crossroads for human progressions and a breathable earth. The best possible solution can be derived by recycling the waste into ecologically viable products. The time has now come to find alternative process involving abundantly available renewable resources in order to produce "more from less". To limit the escalating levels of wastes generated at the global scale, all the countries have committed to reduce greenhouse emissions in atmosphere to about 40% in coming decade. To fulfil such an ambitious commitment it is envisaged to valorise vastly accessible and negatively-assessed waste as a potential, value generating and renewable feedstock. The population expansion has created a higher demand for food and energy which in turn requires higher energy consumption and agricultural production. Extensive agricultural activities have elevated agro-industrial wastes. Such an unutilised biomass entail massive challenges for its proper management and reuse (Prasad et al., 2020). Biofuels include i) biodiesel (long chain alkyl esters), ii) bioethanol and iii) biogas. Biofuels have been categorised intro three generations of bio fuels namely 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation, based on the source of biomass. The chief 1st generation biofuels are bioethanol (synthesised by fermented sugars) and biodiesel (synthesised by transesterification of plant oils or animal fats) and their overuse led to "food-versus-fuel debate." 2nd-generation biofuels are derived from waste lignocellulosic biomass. 3rd generati