Sustainability Challenges and Opportunities in Pectin Extraction from Fruit Waste

Abstract

Pectin is a plant-based hydrocolloid that has unique structural and biochemical properties. It is extracted from discarded fruit-processing industry waste, such as peels. Due to its natural origin and novel properties, pectin is widely accepted in various sectors such as food, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, cosmetics, biomedical, and edible packaging. This work aims to understand the conventional pectin production process from the sustainability standpoint using the life cycle assessment methodology. This enables novel insights into the process, which promotes a greener and more sustainable process of pectin production. In this work, the total life cycle impact in producing 1 kg of pectin was 9.69 kg CO2 equiv in the base-case scenario. In the pectin production process, the stages that contribute to higher impacts were also identified. Furthermore, mineral and organic acids were compared to understand the greenness of acids from the sustainability view. Citric acid, ethanol, and electricity appeared to be the major contributors to climate change impacts; therefore, scenario studies were included to address these issues. The analysis is used as a basis for a discussion about sustainable pectin extraction and its scale-up. Overall, we believe that this perspective would aid in the decision-making process for choosing green and sustainable methods to make the pectin production process environment safe and industrially more acceptable.