Towards the Anchovy Biorefinery: Biogas Production from Anchovy Processing Waste after Fish Oil Extraction with Biobased Limonene

Emilia Paone, Filippo Fazzino, Daniela Maria Pizzone, Antonino Scurria, Mario Pagliaro, Rosaria Ciriminna and Paolo Salvatore Calabrò
Additional contact information
Emilia Paone: Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale (DIEF), Università Degli Studi di Firenze, Via di S. Marta 3, I-50139 Firenze, Italy
Filippo Fazzino: Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, dell’Energia, dell’Ambiente e Dei Materiali (DICEAM), Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria, Via Graziella, Loc. Feo di Vito, I-89124 Reggio Calabria, Italy
Daniela Maria Pizzone: Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, dell’Energia, dell’Ambiente e Dei Materiali (DICEAM), Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria, Via Graziella, Loc. Feo di Vito, I-89124 Reggio Calabria, Italy
Antonino Scurria: Istituto per lo Studio Dei Materiali Nanostrutturati, CNR, Via U. La Malfa 153, I-90146 Palermo, Italy
Mario Pagliaro: Istituto per lo Studio Dei Materiali Nanostrutturati, CNR, Via U. La Malfa 153, I-90146 Palermo, Italy
Rosaria Ciriminna: Istituto per lo Studio Dei Materiali Nanostrutturati, CNR, Via U. La Malfa 153, I-90146 Palermo, Italy
Paolo Salvatore Calabrò: Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, dell’Energia, dell’Ambiente e Dei Materiali (DICEAM), Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria, Via Graziella, Loc. Feo di Vito, I-89124 Reggio Calabria, Italy

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 5, 1-12

Abstract: Anchovies are among the largest fish catch worldwide. The anchovy fillet industry generates a huge amount of biowaste (e.g., fish heads, bones, tails) that can be used for the extraction of several potentially valuable bioproducts including omega-3 lipids. Following the extraction of valued fish oil rich in omega-3, vitamin D 3 and zeaxanthin from anchovy fillet leftovers using biobased limonene in a fully circular process, the solid residue (anchovy sludge) was used as starting substrate for the production of biogas by anaerobic digestion. In spite of the unbalanced carbon to nitrogen (C/N) ratio, typical of marine biowaste, the anchovy sludge showed a good methane yield (about 280 mL CH4 ·g VS −1 ), proving to be an ideal substrate for co-digestion along with other carbon rich wastes and residues. Furthermore, the presence of residual limonene, used as a renewable, not-toxic and edible extraction solvent, does not affect the microbial methanogenesis. The results reported in this study demonstrate that anchovy leftovers after the fish oil extraction process can be efficiently used as a starting co-substrate for the production of biogas in a modern biorefinery.

Keywords: anaerobic digestion; circular economy; biogas; fish waste; anchovy; limonene (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/5/2428/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/5/2428/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:5:p:2428-:d:504783

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().