Chapter 13 - Biomaterial-based waste for membranes and energy applications

Abstract

Fabrication of new products from biomaterial-based waste is becoming a new trend in the research field in many places, such as Asian and African countries. The most abundant, low-cost, and easily found materials are among the advantages for researchers and developers to come up with new technologies and novelties. The chemical and physical properties of biomaterials waste, such as chitosan and cellulose, are the key interest of membrane fabrications and energy applications that make them valuable. The fabrication of membranes from this type of materials has a huge impact on the environment since there are a lot of discussions on biomaterial-based membrane for water and wastewater treatments and other applications including air purification and biowaste treatments. A lot of discussions and findings on energy harvesting and applications have been highlighted in this topic. The future trend of using biomaterials waste for various technologies will lead to a more sustainable ecosystem since the future prospect of this trend is getting broad attention from many stakeholders, even though there are some challenges to be overcome. In a definite way, the use of biomaterials waste has a promising future and seems to contribute a lot to socioeconomic development.