A simple and eco-friendly route to valorize fennel wastes through the recovery of functional compounds and their separation with sustainable membrane technologies

This study reports, a green biorefinery strategy, for purifying and concentrating phenolic compounds of different molecular weight such as caffeic acid (MW 180.16 g/mol), chlorogenic acid (MW 354.21 g/mol) catechin (290.26 g/mol) and ellagic acid (320.197 g/mol), from fennel wastes. The process consists of a centrifugal extraction of fennel wastes followed by a sequential treatment of the fennel extract by microfiltration (MF) and nanofiltration (NF) operations. the proposed process can be a promising approach to increase the added value of fennel wastes within the logic of circular economy, reducing at the same time the environmental impact due to their disposal.