• Jasneet Grewal

The increasing population with declining petro-reserves and escalating demand of energy has focussed attention on shifting from this linear model of incessant consumption of resources to circular economy model based on reuse and valorisation of residues. India, being an agrarian country is among the lead generators of agro-wastes. Enormous amounts of agro-industrial wastes are continually generated, whose management is a grave concern. These agro-wastes, especially the ones, lignocellulosic in nature are potent feedstocks for production of energy and value-added products as they do not compete with food sources for human population.One of the oldest bioprocess, solid-state fermentation (SSF) has proven to be highly effective for valorisation of these residues as it allows dual benefits of solid-waste management with simultaneous cost effective production of value-added products. In this context, various agro-wastes such as Jatropha seed cake, wheat straw, sugarcane bagasse, rice straw, rapeseed cake,castor-bean cake, peanut meal have been utilised as substrates for microbial fermentation for production of various enzymes, aroma compounds, platform chemicals and biopesticides. The present review attempts to provide an impetus to the potential of agro-wastes in being used as substrates for microbial fermentation and leading to production of high-value products.

Agro-wastes, microbial fermentation, solid-state fermentation, enzymes, biorefinery

"Valorisation of agro-wastes and their industrial applications", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 1, page no.522-529, January 2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIRDW06084.pdf

"Valorisation of agro-wastes and their industrial applications", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 1, page no. pp522-529, January 2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIRDW06084.pdf