The use of liquid fatty waste from restaurants as an alternative raw material for the food industry, biomedical and pharmaceutical applications, and the production of biofuel

Abstract

There is an active search for alternative types of raw materials for the needs of the national economy. Fossil fuel reserves are noticeably depleted, the ecological condition of the environment is deteriorating, and at the same time, the amount of industrial waste that needs to be disposed of is increasing. The number of polymers for production based on natural raw materials and the need for them for the food industry, biomedical and pharmaceutical applications is constantly growing. About 250,000 liters of used vegetable oil and other fats are generated every week in catering establishments of Ukraine. The largest share belongs to spent frying fats. A significant volume of promising raw materials ends up in the sewage system. The resources of the treatment plants are excessively depleted. Also, emissions of spent fatty raw materials cause enormous damage to the environment. A study was conducted on: the dynamics of changes in quality indicators of sunflower oil during prolonged heating; evaluation of the quality indicators of the samples of the studied spent fats; dynamics of changes in cooking fat quality indicators during prolonged heating; the dynamics of changes in the quality indicators of frying fat during prolonged heating; the physico-chemical indicators of the quality of samples of experimental used fats were investigated. The possibility of using spent frying fats for the production of targeted products, which is a promising resource for the synthesis and production of polymer materials and secondary raw materials in the processes of the technical sphere and the production of biofuel, was investigated. The use of spent liquid fats as a raw material for the production of diesel fuel is appropriate, however, among the tested samples, heated sunflower oil is the least suitable. Spent deep-frying and cooking fats showed a fairly high resistance to long-term heating and after contact with a hot surface are characterized by acceptable values of thermo-oxidative stability, namely 46.5 and 44.1 %, respectively.