Abstract
Production of food-grade emulsions is continuously rising globally, especially in developing countries. The steepest demand growth is in the segment of inexpensive meat products where edible emulsions serve as lubricants to mitigate economic loses linked with mechanical damage during automated processing of artificial casings. Provided that production goal is to minimize emulsion transfer into the product, its vast majority becomes voluminous greasy and sticky waste. Public sewage treatment plants cannot process such waste, its cleaning processes tends to collapse under loads of emulsions. To make matters worse, composition of emulsions often changes (according to actual pricing of main components) and emulsion manufacturers carefully guard their recipes. Therefore, running of in-house sewage plants would require continuous experimentation linked with need for skilled personnel, frequent changes in technology setup and high operating costs in general. Consequently, it was repeatedly and independently reported that emulsion waste is poured onto wildlife, resulting in environmental damage and an intense rotting odor. Three new methods of emulsion breakdown are proposed and techno-economically assessed. High versatility of methods was confirmed and multiple austerity measures were incorporated. Emulsions are also assessed in terms of an energy source for aerobic and anaerobic microorganisms. It is reported that the addition of edible emulsion to compost does not result in increased product quality or cost reduction. It is firstly revealed that edible emulsions can instantly create an anaerobic environment and accelerate biogas production through the formation of surface films on feedstock surface. Adding waste food-grade emulsions to the biogas plant makes it possible to 100% reduce process water consumption in biogas stations as the process speed can be shortened by approximately 12%.
Highlights
Emulsions are defined as dispersions of immiscible liquids
A large number of compounds that show properties similar to edible emulsions randomly enter the environment, either as natural products originating from animals, plants or microorganisms, such as steroids, terpenes or waxes
Increasing the pH to 10 via sodium bicarbonate that is followed by iron (III) sulfate precipitation and biochar filtration was shown to be the optimal edible emulsion breakdown method in terms of minimum cost and maximum versatility
Summary
Emulsions are defined as dispersions of immiscible liquids. Many natural (milk, yolk, etc.) and processed foods (sauce, margarine, etc.) consist either partly or wholly as emulsions. Double and multiple emulsions, nano-emulsions (5 up to 100 nm), multilayer emulsions, colloidosomes, coated droplets, excipient emulsions, filled hydrogel particles, liposomes and micro-clusters exist [2], as it is possible to engineer various types of, for example, W droplets dispersed within larger O droplets, which are themselves dispersed in a W system (W/O/W) [3] These modern emulsion systems can be used to control the release of certain ingredients, reduce calories, isolate specific ingredients from each other to avoid interactions, control the release of flavor compounds, mask unpleasant flavors, etc. Many microorganisms produce a wide range of amphipathic compounds that exhibit surface activities [11,12] Those that lead to the formation of stable emulsions are referred to as bioemulsifiers, such as lipopeptides, glycolipids, polysaccharides, lipopolysaccharides, proteins or lipoproteins, which are produced by a number of different bacteria (emulsan, alasan), yeasts (liposan), marine microorganisms or fungi [13,14]. The W phase may contain a variety of water-soluble ingredients, including sugars, salts, acids, bases, buffers, alcohols, surfactants, proteins, polysaccharides and preservatives [16,17]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
