Washington D.C., May 23 -- : Engineers at the University of Waterloo have developed a technology that can help extract the biodegradable chemical from waste food that can be refined as a source of energy.

According to the study published in the 'Bioresource Technology', the chemical could also be used to replace petroleum-based chemicals in a host of products including drugs and plastic packaging.

"People like me, environmental biotechnologists, look at food waste as a tremendous resource. With the right technologies, we can extract numerous useful chemicals and fuel from it," said Hyung-Sool Lee, a civil and environmental engineering professor at Waterloo.

The technology already exists to reduce the environmental impact by diverting foo...