Mixed Microbial and Thermal Degradation of Agricultural Derived Plant Wastes

Agricultural and food industries produce a lot of waste biomass which needs to be disposed of. In recent years it has been understood how these biomasses can be recovered and transformed in order to produce organic derivative products with high added value to be reintroduced on the market. A non-exhaustive list of these biotechnological products includes protein hydrolysates, consisting of bioactive peptides and amino acids, growth-stimulating fertilizers for plants and nutritional additives for animal feed. The recovery and transformation of the protein component into protein hydrolysates gives great added value to the waste biomass and is a process that is generally performed chemically. This approach results however unfavourable because of the possible production of toxic side-products, and the high level of energy required, which makes this process eco-unfriendly. In the light of all these limitations, we have designed and developed a mixed procedure, applicable to plant-derived wastes, based on a microbial preliminary degradation, followed by a mild thermic treatment to produce protein hydrolysates from agriculture waste biomass.