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Unlocking the Potential of Agri-Food Waste for Innovative Applications and Bio-Based Materials, 2nd Edition

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Chemical and Molecular Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2025 | Viewed by 1812

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Emanuela Calcio Gaudino

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Drug Science and Technology, University of Turin, I-10125 Torino, Italy
Interests: biomass conversion; green chemistry; enabling technologies; circular economy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Silvia Tabasso

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Chemistry, University of Turin, I-10125 Torino, Italy
Interests: biomass valorisation; process intensification; enabling technologies; biorefineries
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is devoted to new processes that valorize agri-food waste in the frame of circular economy. Indeed, agriculture and food production generate significant amounts of waste, including crop residues, food processing by-products, and expired or unsold food. Rather than letting these materials go to waste, there is a growing interest in finding ways to repurpose them for various innovative applications, such as (but not limited to) biodegradable packaging, biocomposites, textile production, nutraceuticals, animal feed, and sustainable products for agriculture. Future research should address the gap between residues and functional products, exploring the effectiveness of emerging technologies. These innovations enable farmers to optimize resource utilization, reduce waste, and improve crop yields. Environmental sustainability in agriculture is also highlighted, with a focus on technological solutions to minimize soil degradation, water pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions.

In this Special Issue, we invite submissions exploring cutting-edge research and recent advances in the fields of sustainable processes for waste biomass valorization. Overall, this Special Issue advocates for harnessing the power of technological innovations to enhance resource efficiency and environmental sustainability in agriculture.  

Both research papers and reviews are welcome.

Dr. Emanuela Calcio Gaudino
Dr. Silvia Tabasso
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • bio-based polymers
  • agri-food residues
  • enabling technologies
  • bioactive compounds
  • active materials
  • circular economy
  • sustainability

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 777 KB  
Article
Life Cycle Analysis of Particleboard Made of Corn Stalk and Citric Acid at Laboratory Scale
by Lilik Astari, Robert H. Crawford, Kenji Umemura, Barbara Ozarska and Benoit Belleville
Appl. Sci. 2025, 15(17), 9705; https://doi.org/10.3390/app15179705 - 3 Sep 2025
Viewed by 320
Abstract
Research on particleboard fabrication using non-wood biomass as an alternative to wood particles is steadily increasing due to environmental awareness. Information on the life cycle assessment (LCA) of particleboards made of non-wood biomass and non-formaldehyde adhesives is scarce. This research presents the life [...] Read more.
Research on particleboard fabrication using non-wood biomass as an alternative to wood particles is steadily increasing due to environmental awareness. Information on the life cycle assessment (LCA) of particleboards made of non-wood biomass and non-formaldehyde adhesives is scarce. This research presents the life cycle assessment (LCA) of particleboard fabrication made from corn stalk particles and citric acid in Indonesia and Australia at laboratory scale. Cradle-to-gate boundaries were applied with the fabrication steps involving particle preparation, citric acid solution preparation, the mixing of adhesive and particle, a hot-pressing process, and a final production process. The functional unit is a particleboard with 282 mm × 208 mm × 12 mm dimensions. The life cycle inventory data were obtained from particleboard sheet fabrication on a lab scale. Southeast Asia (Indonesia) and Southern Australia (Victoria) conditions were adopted for geographical background processes, using data from the Ecoinvent V.3.10 database. LCA calculation was conducted using the OpenLCA V.2.1.1 software. The environmental impacts were calculated using the ReCiPe Midpoint 2016 methodology. The results showed that oven drying and pre-treatment drying contributed the most to energy consumption in both regions, accounting for 97.14% at the Indonesian site and 96.49% at the Australian site. The environmental impacts in the Australian context showed higher values in 10 out of 18 categories. The five highest environmental impacts were terrestrial ecotoxicity (5.50 × 102 kg 1,4-DCB in Indonesia, 6.37 × 102 kg 1,4-DCB in Australia), global warming (2.72 × 102 kg CO2 eq in Indonesia, 2.49 × 102 kg CO2 eq in Australia), human non-carcinogenic toxicity (4.65 × 102 kg 1,4-DCB in Indonesia, 4.18 × 102 kg 1,4-DCB in Australia), water consumption (2.50 × 102 m3 in Indonesia, 4.62 × 102 m3 in Australia), and fossil resource scarcity (7.34 × 101 kg oil eq in Indonesia, 6.86 × 101 kg oil eq in Australia). Implementing solar drying and sourcing raw materials from farms closer to the production site could reduce energy consumption by up to 48.57% in Indonesia and 48.24% in Australia. These findings underscore the high energy demand of drying and the importance of site selection in particleboard production. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Unlocking the Potential of Agri-Food Waste for Innovative Applications and Bio-Based Materials, 2nd Edition)
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22 pages, 1337 KB  
Article
Eugenol@Natural Zeolite Nanohybrid vs. Clove Powder as Active and Reinforcement Agents in Novel Brewer’s Spent Grain/Gelatin/Glycerol Edible, High Oxygen Barrier Active Packaging Films
by Zoe Ntari, Achilleas Kechagias, Areti A. Leontiou, Alexios Vardakas, Margarita Dormousoglou, Tarsizia Angelari, Konstantinos Zaharioudakis, Panagiota Stathopoulou, Panagiota Karahaliou, Grigorios Beligiannis, Charalampos Proestos, Constantinos E. Salmas and Aris E. Giannakas
Appl. Sci. 2025, 15(17), 9282; https://doi.org/10.3390/app15179282 - 23 Aug 2025
Viewed by 1223
Abstract
Following the trend of food waste valorization to produce innovative bio-based materials, this study proposes the conversion of brewer’s spent grain (BSG) into added value edible, high oxygen barrier, flexible, active packaging films via an extrusion molding compression method. Gelatin (Gel) was used [...] Read more.
Following the trend of food waste valorization to produce innovative bio-based materials, this study proposes the conversion of brewer’s spent grain (BSG) into added value edible, high oxygen barrier, flexible, active packaging films via an extrusion molding compression method. Gelatin (Gel) was used as both a reinforcement and barrier agent and glycerol (Gl) as a plasticizer. Eugenol was nanoencapsulated on natural zeolite (EG@NZ), and pure clove powder (ClP) was used as an active agent to obtain BSG/Gel/Gl/xEG@NZ and BSG/Gel/Gl/xClP (x = 5, 10, and 15 %wt.) active films. Both BSG/Gel/Gl/xEG@NZ and BSG/Gel/Gl/xClP films show enhanced tensile, oxygen barrier, antioxidant, and antibacterial properties, and low toxicity and genotoxicity values. All BSG/Gel/Gl/xEG@NZ films presented a higher oxygen barrier, higher total phenolic content (TPC) values, higher antioxidant activity according to a 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay, higher inhibition zones against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, and lower toxicity and genotoxicity than all BSG/Gel/Gl/xClP films. Thus, the superiority of the nanoencapsulated EG in NZ as compared to the physical encapsulated EG in ClP is proved. Briefly, BSG/Gel/Gl/15EG@NZ active film exhibited ~218% higher tensile strength, ~93% higher TPC value, and ~90% lower effective concentration for a 60% antioxidant activity value (EC60) as compared to the pure BSG/Gel/Gl film. The zones against S. aureus and E. coli were 45 and 30 mm, respectively, and the oxygen barrier was zero. The use of this film extended the shelf life of fresh minced meat by two days and exhibited the high potential to be used as active packaging material. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Unlocking the Potential of Agri-Food Waste for Innovative Applications and Bio-Based Materials, 2nd Edition)
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