Bioprocessing of Agricultural and Agro-Industrial Wastes into Value-Added Products

Abstract

Agricultural wastes are one of the most abundant lignocellulosic wastes on Earth. Inevitably, this number will increase due to increasing population needed to be fed. Unfortunately, this substantial amount of resource is underutilized and ends up in different routes: a) incineration b) left in the field to decay and c) landfill. In all these possible scenarios, it is obvious that they are both non-ecofriendly or unsustainable for the society and related industries. Agricultural wastes are noteworthy “input” for the circular economy since they possess high nutritional composition. Circular economy is defined as a system in which “output” of an industry is reused as a “resource” for another industry. Agricultural and agro-industrial wastes can be converted into value-added products such as enzymes, biofuels, pharmaceuticals, food/feed enhancer, green chemicals, bioplastics and etc. By this way, we can eliminate the problems related to waste management and lower our environmental impact. In addition, circular bioeconomy can lower the production cost of bioprocesses, create regional job opportunities, support farmers. This review discusses industrially important products produced via bioprocessing agricultural feedstocks and related examples from literature are given.