Emerging Biological Technologies: Biofuels and Biochemicals

Composting and anaerobic digestion are well established technologies, although the latter is a relative recent technology regarding solidwaste and full scale plants still are relatively few. However, alternative technologies based on biotechnology are emerging. These technologies are focused around ethanol production, hydrogen production and production of organic chemicals.

It is too early to say if these emerging technologies will play a real role in solid waste management in the future, but they may have a potential for treatment of some organic waste streams.