Research projects are currently underway in Teagasc and UCD todevelop cleaner and greener pre-treatment technologies forconversion of ‘bio-waste’ into ‘bio-based’ products withpotential applications in food, feed and biofuel. These projectshave the potential to significantly reduce the burden on land usefor protein and biofuels, not only in Ireland/Europe butworldwide, along with dramatically improving the conversionefficiencies of current bio-based production technologies.Moreover, these can significantly reduce the ever-increasingenvironmental problem of waste management and landfill usefor waste deposition

Le, Wen

Priyadarshini, Anushree

Rajauria, Gaurav

Tiwari, Brijesh K

English

Arrow@TUDublin

Technological University Dublin ARROW@TU Dublin Articles School of Accounting and Finance 2019 Bio-Waste to Bio-Based Anushree Priyadarshini Technological University Dublin, anushree.priyadarshini@tudublin.ie Gaurav Rajauria UCD Wen Le Teagasc Brijesh K. Tiwari Teagasc Follow this and additional works at: https://arrow.tudublin.ie/buschacart  Part of the Agribusiness Commons Recommended Citation Priyadarshini, A. et al. (2019). Bio-waste to bio-based. Teagasc Food Research Centre, T Research Magazine (Autumn Edition) This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Accounting and Finance at ARROW@TU Dublin. It has been accepted for inclusion in Articles by an authorized administrator of ARROW@TU Dublin. For more information, please contact yvonne.desmond@tudublin.ie, arrow.admin@tudublin.ie, brian.widdis@tudublin.ie. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License 26FOODTRESEARCH | AUTUMN 2019 | VOLUME 14 : NUMBER 3The Earth is projected to hold 9.6 billion people by 2050,consuming approximately 1.6 times the planet’s resources andgenerating a consequent high amount of waste, according to theWorld Resources Institute. These unsustainable consumption andproduction patterns exhaust our resources, adversely impacting theclimate, and causing air and water pollution, and loss ofbiodiversity and of fertile soil, among other environmental, social,and economic challenges. In spite of a general awareness that thefuture focus must be on prevention of waste generation, alongwith increased preparation for reuse and recycling as proposedunder the circular economy concept, there is an urgent need tovalorise waste biomass into high-value products and prevent itending up in landfill, where it contaminates soil and groundwaterand generates greenhouse gases (GHGs).Coffee production and processing generates significant wastesthroughout its life cycle stages, and if not treated properly it hascritical environmental impacts as it contains caffeine, tannins andpolyphenols. At an industrial scale the total quantity of coffee wastebiomass generated each year globally is estimated to be around sixmillion tonnes, while in Ireland more than 9,000 tonnes of coffeewaste are produced each year, resulting in more than 11 million kgof CO2 emissions. Most of the coffee waste is currently disposed ofin landfills, where it breaks down to produce harmful GHGs, as wellas hazardous pathogens and organic leachates that contaminatesurface and groundwater courses. This needs to be drasticallyreduced, according to the EU Waste Framework Directive, 2008.Apart from this detrimental impact on the environment, all alongthe supply chain, much of the original coffee seed is wasted:research suggests that only about 1% of the seed biomass ends upin the coffee cup after the brewing process. Thus, the opportunityto utilise the majority of the nutrients extracted from soil duringthe growth stages of the coffee plant is lost. In order to develop acircular economy and the Irish bioeconomy, it is vital to ensureresource efficiency.Coffee production and processinggenerates significant wastesthroughout its life cycle stages, and if not treated properly it hascritical environmental impacts as it contains caffeine, tannins and polyphenols.Extraction of phenolic antioxidantsResearch projects are currently underway in Teagasc and UCD todevelop cleaner and greener pre-treatment technologies forconversion of ‘bio-waste’ into ‘bio-based’ products withpotential applications in food, feed and biofuel. These projectshave the potential to significantly reduce the burden on land usefor protein and biofuels, not only in Ireland/Europe butworldwide, along with dramatically improving the conversionefficiencies of current bio-based production technologies.Moreover, these can significantly reduce the ever-increasingenvironmental problem of waste management and landfill usefor waste deposition.Under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 ‘Waste2Fuels’project, Teagasc researchers are looking at sustainableproduction of bio-based products from coffee silverskin (CSS)waste. CSS is the major by-product produced during the coffeeroasting process, and has started to attract interest in itsbioconversion (Procentese et al., 2019). Due to its highnutritional composition (Table 1), CSS is being considered as asource of functional ingredients, such as antioxidant compoundsThe high nutritional composition of coffee silverskin makes it an excellentmaterial for bioconversion to functional ingredients, and TEAGASC research islooking at how this might be achieved.Bio-waste to bio-basedor supplements of soluble dietary fibre. In this work, bothsimultaneous ultrasound/microwave-assisted (S-UMAE) andsequential ultrasound-microwave assisted aqueous extractionmethods (U-MAE and M-UAE) are applied and compared withtheir individual techniques (UAE alone and MAE alone). Theresults indicate that S-UMAE showed greater potential andbetter extraction efficiency for phenolic antioxidants from CSS,compared with UAE, MAE, U-MAE and M-UAE. S-UMAEachieved 25.9 %, 16.7 %, 13.1 % and 12.8 % higher extractionyields than UAE, MAE, U-MAE and M-UAE, respectively.Additionally, the yields of total phenolic content and antioxidantcapacity were enhanced significantly by S-UMAE compared toother methods. It was concluded that with the help of novelextraction technology, CSS extraction, with water as solvent, canenhance the extraction performance in a green and sustainableway, and combinations of these extraction technologies couldaccomplish a balance between extraction efficiency, productquality, consumption of solvent, and production costs in theindustry.Under the European Union’sHorizon 2020 ‘Waste2Fuels’ project,Teagasc researchers are looking atsustainable production of bio-based products from coffeesilverskin waste.Table 1: Nutritional and mineral composition of coffeesilverskin (data expressed as g per 100 g of dry weight).Coffee silverskin composition (g/100 g)Moisture                                                        5.89 ± 0.46Protein                                                          14.62 ± 0.23Fat                                                                 3.60 ± 0.29Ash                                                                3.47 ± 0.39Dietary fibre                                                  64.45 ± 1.63Insoluble fibre                                            54.7 ± 0.85Soluble fibre                                              9.75 ± 0.78Carbohydrate                                                7.97 ± 0.44Macrominerals                                                        Calcium (Ca)                                             1.48 ± 0.05Potassium (K)                                             1.21 ± 0.04Magnesium (Mg)                                       0.05 ± 0.01Sodium (Na)                                              0.05 ± 0.01Iron (Fe)                                                     0.04 ± 0.01Commercial perspectiveThe real benefit of these projects, and their value for primaryproducers, will not be realised unless there is potential forindustrial applications, and this calls for understanding themarket for the end product and conducting techno-economicanalysis of the procedure, which, when a technology or processis being developed, ensures that market-driven prices can beachieved (Priyadarshini et al., 2018). With its componentsembedded in research and development of the process, techno-economic analysis and market assessment are invaluable,direction-steering tools. Therefore, the proposed next step in theprojects being explored with researchers in TU Dublin, isconducting a costing analysis of the process to quantify theassociated life cycle costs and scale-up potential. Marketassessment of the end product is also needed, including itscurrent production, manufacturers, product selling prices,product marketing, competing and substitute products, andcustomer analysis (such as: feed, food ingredient and foodsupplements manufacturers).AcknowledgementsThis work is supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020‘Waste2Fuels’ project (grant number: 654623).ReferencesProcentese, A., Raganati, F., Olivieri, G., Russo, M.E. andMarzocchella, A. (2019). ‘Combined antioxidant-biofuelproduction from coffee silverskin’. Applied Microbiology andBiotechnology, 103 (2): 1021-1029.Priyadarshini, A., Rajauria, G., O’Donnell, C.P. and Tiwari, B.K.(2018). ‘Emerging food processing technologies and factorsimpacting their industrial adoption’. Critical Reviews in FoodScience and Nutrition, 1-20.27FOODTRESEARCH | AUTUMN 2019 | VOLUME 14 : NUMBER 3AuthorsAnushree PriyadarshiniCollege of Business, Technological University Dublin, Aungier Street, Dublin 2Gaurav RajauriaSchool of Agriculture and Food Science, University CollegeDublin, Lyons Research Farm, Celbridge, Co. KildareLe WenTeagasc Food Research Centre, Ashtown, Dublin 15Brijesh K. TiwariTeagasc Food Research Centre, Ashtown, Dublin 15Correspondence: brijesh.tiwari@teagasc.ie

Bio-Waste to Bio-Based

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Bio-Waste to Bio-Based

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