Developing a Circular Economy around Jam Production Wastes

A conceptual and scaled-up design of an integrated process is systematically developed to create a circular economy around jam waste based on experimental data from the operation of the units described in the literature. It consists of phenolic compounds extraction, pectin recovery, and the production of a green solvent, ethanol, for internal use and the final product, while the solid residues from several stages can be either gasified or digested to produce thermal energy and power. The base case is a real jam production facility. Waste processing requires around 2 M€/yr to process 37 t/yr of waste, producing 5.2 kg/t of phenolic compounds and 15.9 kg/t of pectin. Both technologies are profitable. However, anaerobic digestion is not only cheaper but also presents a lower entrance barrier, 2.7 (AD) versus 3.4 (GA) M€. A scale-up study is also performed, showing that anaerobic digestion benefits from economies of scale more than solids gasification. The processes are self-sufficient in terms of power but require additional input of thermal energy. In addition, both processes comply with the principles of circularity, achieving an overall circularity index above 0.52.