Waste Valorization

The transition toward a circular bioeconomy demands innovative, sustainable, and efficient technologies for biomass valorization and pulping. Green chemistry strategies, particularly organosolvent pulping pretreatment, are emerging as pivotal solutions to unlock the full potential of lignocellulosic feedstocks. Organosolvent processes employ environmentally benign solvents to selectively fractionate biomass components, enabling the recovery of high-purity cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin with minimal environmental footprint.

The development of sustainable packaging materials from agro-industrial by-products supports the transition to a circular bio-economy and offers a viable alternative to petroleum-based plastics. Cocoa shells (CS), a by-product from the chocolate industry, are an abundant source of cellulose with limited industrial use. In this study, cellulose was extracted from CS and chemically converted into carboxymethyl cellulose (CS-CMC), which was then used to formulate bioplastic films plasticized with glycerol or sorbitol.