Innovative approaches for the extraction of valuable resources from food waste

Nonetheless the inherent generality of these materials often results in inefficiencies in tackling particular separation challenges. As such, there is significant interest in the development of adsorbents which are tailored towards the challenge at hand, often with the aim of improving upon factors such as selectivity for a particular target or improving binding capacity.

However, in designing tailored materials, a balance needs to be struck depending on economic factors such as the scale required, market value of the target molecule(s) and cost for synthesis of the adsorbent in order to attain financial viability. <br><br>In this thesis, the role of tailored adsorbents in the valorisation of food waste matrices is examined. To begin with, the application of highly tailored materials in the form of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) is pursued for the valorisation of a food waste stream, however several barriers such as scalability, quantity of waste to be treated and solubility limitations prohibited the use of these materials at scale.