RT Journal Article
T1 Fostering the valorization of organic wastes into carboxylates by a computer-aided design tool
A1 Saavedra del Oso, Mateo
A1 Regueira López, Alberte
A1 Hospido Quintana, Almudena
A1 Mauricio Iglesias, Miguel
K1 Early-stage design
K1 Aided decision making
K1 Resource recovery
K1 VFA production
K1 Mathematical modelling
AB The carboxylate platform has the potential to constitute an outstanding opportunity for converting organic wastes into chemicals and other value-added products within a circular economy framework. However, its development is still hampered by technological and financial constraints due to difficulties at forecasting the carboxylates yields by different wastes. This work provides a framework that can be the key to foster circular economy and bridge the development risks, allowing early-stage evaluation of process performance. This framework, which is implemented as a computer-aided design tool, is comprised by: (i) a library of substrates including their characterization and appropriate kinetic parameter selection, (ii) an integral kinetic and stoichiometric model which solves both identified gaps regarding the disintegration mechanisms and the acidogenic stoichiometry variability in the anaerobic mono and cofermentation of complex organic wastes, and (iii) a set of indicators to interpret simulation results and assist the decision making; and presents a showcase of applications supported by two case studies. These case studies show that the optimal conditions to steer VFA spectrum towards odd-chain VFA in MCF of regrind pasta are neutral pH (6.5–7) and a relatively low HRT (3–4 days), while cofermentation of tuna canning wastewater and regrind pasta follows interactive mechanisms that cannot be captured by a “naïve approach”, i.e. by adding up the individual contributions. Finally, it is discussed how value chain actors with different interests can benefit from the proposed tool: identifying technical, economic, and environmental bottlenecks, and proposing innovative solutions prior to costly lab research and piloting
PB Elsevier
YR 2022
FD 2022
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/27576
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/27576
LA eng
NO Waste Management 142 (2022) 101-110
NO This work has been financially supported by the USABLE Packaging project (Call: H2020-BBI-JTI-2018, EU ID: 836884). A. Regueira would like to acknowledge the support of the Xunta de Galicia through a postdoctoral fellowship (ED481B-2021-012). The authors belong to a Galician Competitive Research Group (GRC ED431C 2021/37). The programme is co-funded by FEDER (UE)
DS Minerva
RD 24 abr 2026