Waste Valorisation

2Waste as a Bioresource

Gayatri Suresh¹, Joseph Sebastian¹, and Satinder Kaur Brar^1,2

¹INRS‐ETE, Université du Québec, 490 Rue de la Couronne, Québec, G1K 9A9, Canada

²Department of Civil Engineering, Lassonde School of Engineering, York University, North York, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

2.1 Introduction

Bioresources are biological, non‐fossil resources that can be renewed naturally. These can be used by humans for the production of food, energy carriers, biomolecules, and in industries like construction, pulp and paper, and chemicals (Jadhav 2017; Narayana and Johnson 2017). Bioresources can be classified into four groups based on their origin – primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary bioresources (Körner 2015). Primary bioresources are generated for specific applications such as the production of food and high‐value biobased products. These mainly include plants and animals grown for direct human use. Secondary bioresources are produced as residues of industrial processing, primary processing or area maintenance, and can be used for the production of food, high‐ and medium‐value biobased products and energy, such as straw, husk, animal entrails, twigs, and so on. Tertiary bioresources are residuals that are mixed with fractions or impurities and have a lower value compared with secondary bioresources – examples are food processing residues, food wastes, and mixed slaughterhouse residues. Quaternary bioresources are generated as residues after the consumption of a biobased ...