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Electronic Journal of Biotechnology
Universidad Católica de Valparaíso
ISSN: 0717-3458
Vol. 26, No. 1, 2017, pp. 69-83
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Bioline Code: ej17025
Full paper language: English
Document type: Review Article
Document available free of charge
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Electronic Journal of Biotechnology, Vol. 26, No. 1, 2017, pp. 69-83
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Green conversion of municipal solid wastes into fuels and chemicals
Matsakas, Leonidas; Gao, Qiuju; Jansson, Stina; Rova, Ulrika & Christakopoulos, Paul
Abstract
Presently, the society is facing a serious challenge for the effective management of the increasing amount of
produced municipal solid wastes. The accumulated waste has caused a series of environmental problems such
as uncontrolled release of greenhouse gases. Moreover, the increasing amount of wastes has resulted in a
shortage of areas available for waste disposal, resulting in a nonsustainable waste management. These
problems led to serious public concerns, which in turn resulted in political actions aiming to reduce the
amount of wastes reaching the environment. These actions aim to promote sustainable waste management
solutions. The main objective of these policies is to promote the recycling of municipal solid waste and the
conversion of waste to energy and valuable chemicals. These conversions can be performed using either
biological (e.g., anaerobic digestion) or thermochemical processes (e.g., pyrolysis). Research efforts during the
last years have been fruitful, and many publications demonstrated the effective conversation of municipal solid
waste to energy and chemicals. These processes are discussed in the current review article together with the
change of the waste policy that was implemented in the EU during the last years.
Keywords
Anaerobic digestion; Biogas; Conversion of waste to energy; Environmental problems; Ethanol; Gasification; Hydrogen; Public concerns; Pyrolysis; Uncontrolled release of greenhouse gases; Waste disposal
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