Project description
A greener approach to fatty amine production
Fatty amines are crucial for products like cosmetics and detergents. However, traditional methods of making these compounds are inefficient, requiring lots of energy and using harmful chemicals. These processes also produce a mix of unwanted by-products. The EU-funded FLEXIZYME project aims to revolutionise fatty amine production through an integrated biotechnological approach. Specifically, it leverages enzyme engineering, machine learning, and innovative reactor design to optimise production from fat and protein residues. By addressing process inefficiencies and incorporating techno-economic and life cycle assessments, FLEXIZYME promises a sustainable, scalable solution, advancing the application of biotechnological methods in diverse industries.
Objective
"Fatty amines possess cationic and surface-active properties, finding applications in cosmetics, coatings, detergents, and more with a projected market growth to $5.54 billion by 2027.
The traditional ""nitrile route"" for their synthesis is flawed by drawbacks like high energy needs, toxic catalysts, harsh conditions, and low selectivity, resulting in complex amine mixtures. Biotechnological alternatives, deploying enzymes, offer a sustainable alternative, characterized by mild conditions and high selectivity but their industrial implementation is hampered by cost and complexity challenges. Currently, there's a lack of a holistic approach that considers upstream, midstream, and downstream factors when designing biotechnological processes.
FLEXIZYME aims to pioneer an interdisciplinary, systematic biotechnological platform for fatty amine production from fat and protein-rich residues, encompassing all process stages. Integrating cutting-edge technologies will address limitations hindering enzyme use in cosmetics, detergents, and agriculture. Scaling up and validation across these sectors is a pivotal project aspect.
Key project elements include a chemo/enzymatic approach, enzyme engineering/improvement, machine learning tools applied to experimental and in silico data, reactor design and monitoring. These findings will culminate in a biotechnological platform for fatty amine production, encouraging widespread adoption of biotechnological industrial applications.
Guided by Techno-Economic Assessment and Life Cycle Assessment, FLEXIZYME ensures productivity, yield, robustness, and flexibility. A multi-actor approach and interdisciplinary collaboration aligned with industrial needs will streamline the implementation of the biotechnological platform's outputs in industry.
This flexible, versatile biotechnological platform marks an innovative departure from existing fatty amine production processes, addressing current limitations enhancing environmental performance."
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
This project's classification has been validated by the project's team.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
This project's classification has been validated by the project's team.
- engineering and technology chemical engineering biochemical engineering
- social sciences economics and business economics production economics productivity
- natural sciences chemical sciences organic chemistry amines
- natural sciences computer and information sciences artificial intelligence machine learning
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins enzymes
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
-
HORIZON.2.6 - Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme -
HORIZON.2.6.6 - Bio-based Innovation Systems in the EU Bioeconomy
See all projects funded under this programme
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-JU-RIA - HORIZON JU Research and Innovation Actions
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-JU-CBE-2023
See all projects funded under this callCoordinator
Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
46980 Paterna
Spain
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.