Bioconversion of Biomass Waste Drives Sustainable Development
Abstract
Global population growth has created enormous amounts of biomass waste generated across agroforestry systems, animal husbandry, and municipal sectors. According to recent estimates, municipal solid waste has reached approximately 1.3 billion tons each year, alongside annual discharge volumes exceeding 170 million metric tons originating annually from pulp manufacturing sectors, necessitating urgent measures in waste conversion and resource recovery. Here, we review the classification and composition of biomass waste, with a focus on bioconversion technologies that include pretreatment, anaerobic digestion, fermentation, and composting. Analysis shows that certain microbial pretreatment strategies can achieve lignocellulose hydrolysis efficiency above 80, while anaerobic digestion can yield more than 300 mL methane/g.VS. It also highlighted the potential of insects such as black soldier fly larvae for both waste reduction and feed production. In addition, bibliometric results indicate that bioconversion has been a major research emphasis, with more than 470 occurrences in relevant literature from 2015 to 2024. This article concludes that bioconversion offers a sustainable path to address resource depletion, climate warming, and carbon neutrality, although improvements are still needed to enhance process efficiency and reduce overall costs.