Fruit-refinery: obtention processes, characterization methods and generation of products derived from residues of the fruitculture

Abstract

The national fruitculture is one of the most important sectors of Brazilian economy, with significant contributions to the production of fruits, industrialized juices and sweets, exportations of industrialized food, and large-scale employment. Despite its great importance for the national economy, the agroindustry generates huge amounts of residues which contribute to increasing problems related to environmental issues. For this reason, our current project has the following four major aims: 1) to propose rational uses for residues derived from the fruitculture industry; 2) to generate high-value products; 3) to develop new methods for obtention and 4) to apply new methods of characterization for raw materials and products. The project's overarching goal is to establish a Fruit-Refinery using as raw materials residues generated by the agroindustrial sector of the national fruitculture. Thereby, this project intends to transform agroindustrial residues from fruits such as orange, banana, mango, pineapple and guava, by using processes such as microbial fermentation, enzymatic hydrolysis, auto-hydrolysis, and bioelectrochemistry, and by applying new methods for characterization of raw materials and their respective derived high-value compounds. The Fruit-Refinery outlined in this project proposes to yield high-value products such as: biodegradable polymers (poly(D-lactic acid) and polyhydroxyalkanoates), biosurfactants (ramnolipids), prebiotics (xylo-oligosaccharides), biomaterials (derived from cellulose and lignin) e biofuels (hydrogen and methane). (AU)