Some of these problems could be eased by converting food waste into valuable
products like bio-based chemicals. Succinic acid (SA) is one such chemical with high
market potential [2]. Today, it is produced from fossil sources but also partly from
cultivated biomass on a commercial basis [3]. Several initiatives are now underway to
examine the use offood waste as feedstock for SA production. Most of these initiatives
are limited to homogenous industrial waste streams, but a research project in Sweden
is looking at a more novel and complex feedstock—mixed food waste (MFW) [4].
The purpose of this project is to evaluate the prospect for realizing Swedish
production of bio-based chemicals from MFW. In this chapter, we present the
evaluation results of one possible production route, where microbial production of
SA from MFW in Sweden is used as a case study.
The evaluation of SA from MFW is addressed from multiple perspectives:
technical and social system structures are explored, in addition to resource and
environmental implications. Several perspectives and methods are thus involved in
the evaluations, such as the technical (laboratory cultivation and mechanical testing), the social (actor analysis, policy analysis, market analysis, and societal
acceptance), the resource based (waste flow analysis and scenario analysis), and the
environmental (life cycle assessment of current and future valorization techniques
for MFW). The project thus uses a transdisciplinary approach and offers an arena
where both research partners and industrial partners meet and discuss possible
options for MFW-based SA production in Sweden.
2 Multiple Perspectives and Evaluation Methods
for Converting Mixed Food Waste into Bio-based
Chemicals
The case study chosen here involves microbal growth on mixed food waste derived
from municipal solid waste to produce bio-based SA in Sweden. The mixed food
waste was sourced from Ragn Sells AB’s full-scale waste management facility in the
area of Stockholm, Sweden. In Sweden, the current value pathway for MFW involves
anaerobic digestion to produce biogas [5]. The future production could involve the
cultivation of Escherichia coli bacteria to produce succinic acid as a raw material for
further polymerisation. The case study was chosen together with academic and
industrial partners in a multidisciplinary research project on how mixed food waste
can be used as a resource for the production of bio-based chemicals and higher value
products than current biogas (FORMAS 211-2012-70). Research questions derived
from different partners included different disciplines, such as molecular biology
(natural science), biotechnology (bio-based engineering), as well as social systems
perspectives (social science) and environmental systems science (resource and life
cycle perspective). Multiple perspectives, scales and methods were thus involved in
the different evaluations presented in Table 1, which lead to different results presented
in the following sections.
328
B. Brunklaus et al.
products like bio-based chemicals. Succinic acid (SA) is one such chemical with high
market potential [2]. Today, it is produced from fossil sources but also partly from
cultivated biomass on a commercial basis [3]. Several initiatives are now underway to
examine the use offood waste as feedstock for SA production. Most of these initiatives
are limited to homogenous industrial waste streams, but a research project in Sweden
is looking at a more novel and complex feedstock—mixed food waste (MFW) [4].
The purpose of this project is to evaluate the prospect for realizing Swedish
production of bio-based chemicals from MFW. In this chapter, we present the
evaluation results of one possible production route, where microbial production of
SA from MFW in Sweden is used as a case study.
The evaluation of SA from MFW is addressed from multiple perspectives:
technical and social system structures are explored, in addition to resource and
environmental implications. Several perspectives and methods are thus involved in
the evaluations, such as the technical (laboratory cultivation and mechanical testing), the social (actor analysis, policy analysis, market analysis, and societal
acceptance), the resource based (waste flow analysis and scenario analysis), and the
environmental (life cycle assessment of current and future valorization techniques
for MFW). The project thus uses a transdisciplinary approach and offers an arena
where both research partners and industrial partners meet and discuss possible
options for MFW-based SA production in Sweden.
2 Multiple Perspectives and Evaluation Methods
for Converting Mixed Food Waste into Bio-based
Chemicals
The case study chosen here involves microbal growth on mixed food waste derived
from municipal solid waste to produce bio-based SA in Sweden. The mixed food
waste was sourced from Ragn Sells AB’s full-scale waste management facility in the
area of Stockholm, Sweden. In Sweden, the current value pathway for MFW involves
anaerobic digestion to produce biogas [5]. The future production could involve the
cultivation of Escherichia coli bacteria to produce succinic acid as a raw material for
further polymerisation. The case study was chosen together with academic and
industrial partners in a multidisciplinary research project on how mixed food waste
can be used as a resource for the production of bio-based chemicals and higher value
products than current biogas (FORMAS 211-2012-70). Research questions derived
from different partners included different disciplines, such as molecular biology
(natural science), biotechnology (bio-based engineering), as well as social systems
perspectives (social science) and environmental systems science (resource and life
cycle perspective). Multiple perspectives, scales and methods were thus involved in
the different evaluations presented in Table 1, which lead to different results presented
in the following sections.
328
B. Brunklaus et al.