Circular economy applied to waste management in food distribution centers: recognizing the wealth of waste for a biorefinery facility

• Grant number: 18/14739-1
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): August 01, 2019
• Effective date (End): July 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Production Engineering
• Principal researcher: Feni Dalano Roosevelt Agostinho
• Grantee: Federico Sulis
• Home Institution: Vice-Reitoria de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa. Universidade Paulista (UNIP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Industrialization, urbanization and human population have grown in the last years, causing an increase on environmental load due to energy demand and waste generated. The food processing industry continues to grow, generating large amount of organically rich waste flows per year; these processors face significant economic and environmental pressures for appropriate conversion and disposal of these waste flows. Solid waste disposal problems, mostly in highly urbanized environments, energy shortages (primarily oil) and/or high petroleum prices, as well as environmental issues such as the shrinking landfill capacity, can all be addressed by converting waste material into useful and saleable products. Food waste represents an important potential source of renewable energy and secondary raw materials. This research project aims to assess the environmental feasibility in using food waste for energy and material production. The food supply center in Brazil, São Paulo, called CEAGESP will be considered as case study to explore the potentialities in directing the food organic residues for an alternative destination rather than landfills. A Biorefinery scenario will be elaborated to convert food residues into valuable and marketable products. The Life Cycle Assessment and Emergy (with an "m") Evaluation will be used as methods to obtain environmental-energetic indicators supporting a scientific-based discussion about the Biorefinery performance. It is expected that performance indicators show better figures for the Biorefinery than current practices used for food waste management by CEAGESP. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

GIANNETTI, BIAGIO F.; ALMEIDA, CECILIA M. V. B.; AGOSTINHO, FENI; SULIS, FEDERICO; COSCIEME, LUCA; PULSELLI, FEDERICO M.; BASTIANONI, SIMONE; MARCHETTINI, NADIA. Enzo Tiezzi, turning pioneering into modern ideas: tempos, Ecodynamics and sustainable economy. ECOLOGICAL MODELLING, v. 431, SEP 1 2020. Web of Science Citations: 0.