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Foreword

This book reveals innovative biotechnology tools for Zero Waste Drives, providing

an integrated approach for biotechnology tools, methodology, and indicators for

waste management practices and evaluating the advanced biotechnology and other

transformational options. The new concept of Zero Waste is a sustainable approach

to minimize the waste and making the world better and currently is being adopted

in various sectors like mining, urbanization, manufacturing, agriculture, etc. Zero

waste approach looks wastes as salvageable resources, which contain valuable

nutrients, bioactives, industrial chemicals, and precious metals. Most of the zero

waste drives are nowadays focused on optimum recycling, reuse, and resource

recovery, ideally leading to the zero waste manufacturing as a futuristic approach.

Among them, biotechnological approaches for reaching zero waste are more

eco-friendly and sustainable, being based on the recovery of energy and biofuels

from agricultural, urban, and food wastes. In whole, bioconversion technologies

like bioleaching, biosorption, and bioremediation can be used to obtain valuable

products from different wastes and these technologies use different organisms and

enzymes. Classic examples are the enzyme-based technology for the recovery of

ethanol from lignocellulosic waste, bio-H2 production by dark fermentation process

and recycling of used cooking oil as fuel, microbial-enzymatic degradation of

plastic, creation of biodegradable polymers or bioremediation of pesticides, energy

generation from biowastes, among many others, described in this book. Economic

aspects and commercialization of zero waste biotechnologies are also discussed.

I consider this monograph as “all-in-one” handbook in the area of zero waste

approach,

discussing

emerging

biotechnological

and

nanobiotechnological

approaches for futuristic greener and sustainable future with zero emissions and

production of marketable products from wastes.

Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León

Monterrey City, México

Boris I. Kharisov