Brazilian Food Waste as a Substrate for Bioethanol Production

Food waste (FW) is a common source of contamination, contaminating both soils and water bodies by releasing greenhouse gases. FW holds great potential for biofuel and bioproduct production, which can mitigate its environmental impact and become a valuable addition to the circular bioeconomy. Therefore, this work aimed to investigate the use of food waste as a substrate to produce fermentable sugars and bioethanol. FW was pretreated by lipid removal. Raw and treated FW was hydrolyzed by amylases. Also, FW was hydrolyzed using sulfuric acid under different residence times (20, 40, and 60 min), sulfuric acid concentrations (0.5, 1.0, and 1.5% v·v^-1), solid loads (5, 10, and 15% m·v^-1), and temperatures (111, 120, and 127 °C). The best reducing sugar concentration was obtained at a 1.5% concentration of sulfuric acid and a 15% solid load applied for 1 h at 127 °C. The acid hydrolysis process was more efficient (76.26% efficiency) than the enzymatic one (72.7%). Bioethanol production was carried out as static submerged fermentation, with <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> at 10% (humidity m·v^-1) being used as the producer and the acid and enzymatic hydrolysates being used as carbon sources. Lipid removal from FW did not influence the acid or enzymatic hydrolytic processes. For fermentation, the highest bioethanol yield was obtained from the acid hydrolysate of raw FW (0.49 kg·kg glicose^-1). Thus, the processes used were efficient for bioethanol production, presenting alternatives for sustainable food waste destinations and low-cost biofuel production.