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In Sweden, the current dominant valorization of food waste is the production of biogas. However, as current production has low profitability, other options are sought to find more valuable uses of food waste, e.g. as the feedstock for bio-based chemicals. One example is the use of food waste in the production of bio-based succinic acid. In this paper, a LCA study is presented in order to highlight whether biogas production or the production of succinic acid has the lowest environmental impact as valorization option for mixed food waste, and if mixed food waste could be an environmentally preferable feedstock to succinic acid production. The LCA study shows that the environmental results depend on the perspective. From a valorization perspective, food waste has the lowest environmental impact the biogas production. From a feedstock perspective, mixed food waste is an environmentally preferable feedstock to succinic acid production. Although many uncertainties exist because production processes are still being developed, it can be concluded that mixed food waste seems to be a promising feedstock for bio-based chemicals from an environmental point of view, and is of interest to be included in future assessments of bio-based chemicals for the emerging bio-economy.

The option of producing the chemical succinic acid from bio-based resources is well in line with current political and industrial ambitions for a bio-based economy. A little explored but intriguing ...

Within the current political and industrial transition to a bio-based economy, food waste can be an alternative resource for biobased chemicals. This chapter describes a case study that evaluates the prospect for Swedish production of biobased chemicals such as succinic acid from food waste. The evaluation is addressed from multiple systems perspectives. From a technical and resource system perspective, the results of the case study show that production seems possible. However, from a social system perspective succinic acid production currently lacks institutional support and actor commitment and alignment for realizing development in Sweden. From an environmental and life cycle perspective, the scoping of the analysis is decisive for the results. The study shows that multiple perspectives complement each other when seeking a nuanced evaluation of technical innovation and give insights for the intended value chain.