A new publication from IEA Bioenergy’s Task 36 Material and Energy Valorisation of Waste in a Circular Economy looks at advanced sorting technologies for food wastes.
The report provides an overview of technologies currently available on the market, accompanied by a brief case study on food waste in Germany. It also presents an example of industrial-scale implementation based on ReFood, which operates 12 anaerobic digestion plants around Europe, using advanced sorting systems for packaged and unpackaged waste streams. The report with an accompanying Task 36 post is free to download here.
Dr Yue Zhang, who co-Leads EBNet’s Anaerobic Fermentation (AF) Working Group, said “Food waste is highly significant as a feedstock for advanced bioprocessing because of its energy and nutrient content. The report provides a useful high-level summary of the performance characteristics, components and applications of each technology type: there is still a widespread lack of readily-available information of this type. It is worth noting that practices differ in different European countries, with some collecting source-separated materials while others rely more on mechanical separation from mixed collection. While de-packaging technologies for food waste from commercial and retail sources are becoming increasingly sophisticated and effective, the recovery of clean feedstocks from post-consumer food waste remains technically challenging”.
The AF WG will be hosting a webinar on some green and waste-based biorefinery options later this year. Meanwhile a report on WG activities to March 2026 is available here, and for more updates see the WG News tag.
