Recent advances on physical technologies for the pretreatment of food waste and lignocellulosic residues

[Display omitted] •Food and lignocellulose residues are sustainable feedstocks for use in biorefineries.•Physical pretreatments can provide key advantages in comparison to other methods.•Advances in milling, extrusion, ultrasonication and microwave pretreatment are given.•Further research is needed to make feasible the scaling up of these technologies. The complete deployment of a bio-based economy is essential to meet the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals from the 2030 Agenda. In this context, food waste and lignocellulosic residues are considered low-cost feedstocks for obtaining industrially attractive products through biological processes. The effective conversion of these raw materials is, however, still challenging, since they are recalcitrant to bioprocessing and must be first treated to alter their physicochemical properties and ease the accessibility to their structural components. Among the full pallet of pretreatments, physical methods are recognised to have a high potential to transform food waste and lignocellulosic residues. This review provides a critical discussion about the recent advances on milling, extrusion, ultrasound, and microwave pretreatments. Their mechanisms and modes of application are analysed and the main drawbacks and limitations for their use at an industrial scale are discussed.