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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - AgriMax (Agri and food waste valorisation co-ops based on flexible multi-feedstocks biorefinery processing technologies for new high added value applications)

Teaser

Summary

The unprecedented environmental and societal changes ongoing at global level are generating a number of challenges for assuring the sustainable development of mankind throughout the next decades. Around one third of all the food globally produced is wasted every year, generating 1.3 billion tonnes of residues per year. Food losses occur throughout the whole food value chain from farmers to consumers. The European Strategy for Bioeconomy features actions for ensuring food security, managing natural resources, reducing dependence on non-renewable resources, mitigating and adapting to climate change, creating jobs and maintaining European competitiveness.

Agrimax aims to bring several benefits to the primary production including food loss reduction, natural resources preservation, fossil feedstock replacement, by-product valorisation and environmental impact reduction. Such outcomes will be proven at demonstration scale by the development of two multi-feedstock pilot biorefineries. These will convert agricultural and food processing wastes (AFPW) into products that will be validated in operational environment. The two pilot biorefineries will be built in Italy and Spain upgrading and extending the functionalities of already available facilities at the hosting site. These will be used to manufacture the products that in the second half of the project will be validated in their final final applications. Once the performances of the final products will be validated the overall environmental impact of the entire value chain will be evaluated according to the LCA standard.

Building upon previous results, four case-scenarios have been selected to disclose the potential of a number of new agro-value chains based on residues from tomato, cereal, olive and potato processing. A number of products are expected from the biorefineries including coatings based on cutin, proteins for food applications, fibres for biocomposites, aromas, phenolic compounds, lycopene and minor carotenoids, advanced cellulose fibres, biopolymers produced by fungi for secondary packaging, building blocks for aromatic biopolymers and compost as well as hydrocompost. These products will be applied in three markets:
1] Packaging (the project covers biobased solutions for flexible and rigid packaging, active and passive barrier materials, coatings for metal packaging, biocomposites and secondary packaging).
2] Food (additives, ingredients, coatings, microorganisms used in production, enhanced food products will be delivered).
3] Agriculture (bioplastics embedding fertilisers-based solutions for mulching films and pots as well as advanced waste derived biofertilisers with biostimulant and biocontrol properties will be delivered in a cascade approach).

In parallel with the technical development Agrimax will elaborate new business models to maximize the impact of the project results. This activity will be performed in collaboration with stakeholders that will be engaged also thanks to the development of a Joint Stakeholder Platform that will open the pilot biorefineries to external entities.

Work performed

During the first reporting period (ie until M18) the consortium focused its effort mainly in the design of the two pilot biorefineries. The first six months of the project have been used to set the framework for the coherent and effective development of the following activities. In first place the state-of-the-art about agriculture food residues conversion has been reviewed and the availability of raw material has been defined. Market benchmarks and applicable regulations have also been identified and taken in consideration for a successful implementation and market introduction of the project outcomes. Finally the process and product specifications have been defined in order to match the needs of the validation WPs, that will take place in the second half of the project, with the production capacity of the two pilot biorefineries and the products properties. From month 6 to month 18 the consortium developed the conceptual design of the pilot plants, which includes the integrated flow diagrams and plot plans, the definition and sizing of main equipment, definition of control and safety aspects, and some aspects of the front end engineering design including the basis for the detailed design, the equipment list with the specifications, and the preparation of the tenders for the technological providers. Additionally aspects concerning the storability of the different feedstock materials as well as properties of the main products from both pilot plants were evaluated. In parallel the consortium started the preparation of the exploitation strategy based on the expected key exploitable results and the related IPR. To achieve the maximum dissemination outreach the consortium has deployed a number of dissemination and communication actions and started the development of a Joint Stakeholder Platform to engage a relevant number of stakeholders and open the biorefineries to potential local users.

During the second reporting period (ie M19-M30) the consortium focus its efforts on the construction and commissioning of the two biorefineries. By the end of the reporting period (M30, March 2019) the Italian Pilot Plant building was completed and the biorefinery was unofficially inaugurated by the project consortium and was ready to commence functional trials. The Spanish Pilot Plant was still under construction at M30 with the works estimated to be completed by M36 (September 2019). At the same time the consortium started preparing for the optimization of the biorefinery processes and the valorization of their outputs by (i) conducting a series of analysis for the characterisation of the pilot plant feedstock and fluxes as these became available during pilot plant development, (ii) conducting preliminary testing for the valorization of the biorefinery outputs by using either commerical compounds or compounds produced by the existing pilot plants (e.g. in FHF and BPF). Finally, the consortium continued with the dissemination and communication activities with the development and release of several videos, launched the first version of the Joint Stakeholder Platform for internal testing within the consortium, and continued working towards a comprehensive exploitation strategy and the elaboration of new circular business models.

Final results

To foster the transition toward a biobased economy in Europe, AgriMax is developing an innovative generation of flexible and multipurpose biorefineries in which a number of innovative conversion technologies are applied in a cascading approach to obtain several high added value bioproducts. Ultrasound Assisted Extraction, steam explosion, enzymatic treatment and filtration technologies are complement each other to source biocompounds in multiple ways: a) enhancing extraction yield and therefore cost effectiveness, b) providing the opportunity to use eco-friendly solvents (e.g. water) by improvement of their extraction performance, c) enhancing the extraction of heat sensitive components under conditions which would otherwise have low or unacceptable yields. AgriMax will also accelerate the market uptake of the biorefineries products developing a tailored business model and engaging relevant stakeholder by an online stakeholder platform to access the facilities and test the resulting products.