Cavitation as a zero-waste circular economy process to convert citrus processing waste into biopolymers in high demand

Cavitation in water only, no matter whether hydrodynamic or acoustic, is a zero-waste circular economy process to convert industrial citrus processing waste into high-performance polysaccha- rides in high demand in a single-step at room temperature and ambient pressure using a modest amount of electricity as the only energy input. Following previous reports in which we used hydrodynamic cavitation, we now use an industrial acoustic sonicator to demonstrate the gen- eral viability of cavitation to convert biowaste residue of the industrial squeezing of pigmented sweet orange ( Citrus sinensis ) into highly bioactive “IntegroPectin ”pectin and micronized cellu- lose “CytroCell ”. From biomedicine through advanced composite membranes, said biomaterials hold great applicative potential. We conclude discussing the economic and technical feasibility of industrial implementation of the “CytroCav ”process.