Periodic Reporting for period 2 - REDWine (INCREASING MICROALGAE BIOMASS FEEDSTOCK BY VALORIZING WINE GASEOUS AND LIQUID RESIDUES)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2022-05-01 al 2023-10-31
Climate change is one of the most challenging contemporary global threats. This phenomenon has a range of potential ecological, physical and health impacts, including extreme weather events (such as floods, droughts, storms and heatwaves), sea-level rise, altered crop growth and disrupted water systems. Human GHG emissions, including carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide, methane and others, have originated worrisome scenario.
Among all the production sectors, the food industry is highly contributing to GHG emissions, as it is estimated to be 29% of all anthropogenic emissions. Those emissions are impacting global climate, affecting resources availability and food production. The wine sector is under pressure, with studies showing the possibility of vast portions of Europe on the Mediterranean coastline, especially Italy, Greece, and France, becoming completely inhospitable to grape production by 20501. Global stakeholders are developing strategies to fight climate change and the EU is no exception.
The new EU Green Deal aims to achieve GHG emissions reduction by at least 55% by 2030 and a climate neutral EU economy by 20502. The REDWine project will demonstrate the technical, economic and environmental feasibility of reducing by, at least, 31% of the CO2 eq. emissions produced in the winery industry value chain by utilising biogenic fermentation CO2 for microalgae biomass production.
The goal will be achieved by implementing a new circular economy business model for wine producers, where they will become microalgae biomass producers by utilising their own gaseous and liquid effluents, allowing them to diversify their revenues by valorizing microalgae biomass into food, cosmetics, agricultural products, and new Wines.
REDWine will rely on a complete consortium of 12 entities to achieve its goals, of which 1 ASS, 7 SMEs, 1 LE, 2 RTOs and 1 UNI. REDWine is coordinated by primary producers (the AVIPE wine producers association) harnessing the knowledge of an equitable balance of entities, a multidisciplinary team and assuring a degree of backup and overlapping between partners that reduce risk and gives assurances for its success in short- and long-terms.
Among all the production sectors, the food industry is highly contributing to GHG emissions, as it is estimated to be 29% of all anthropogenic emissions. Those emissions are impacting global climate, affecting resources availability and food production. The wine sector is under pressure, with studies showing the possibility of vast portions of Europe on the Mediterranean coastline, especially Italy, Greece, and France, becoming completely inhospitable to grape production by 20501. Global stakeholders are developing strategies to fight climate change and the EU is no exception.
The new EU Green Deal aims to achieve GHG emissions reduction by at least 55% by 2030 and a climate neutral EU economy by 20502. The REDWine project will demonstrate the technical, economic and environmental feasibility of reducing by, at least, 31% of the CO2 eq. emissions produced in the winery industry value chain by utilising biogenic fermentation CO2 for microalgae biomass production.
The goal will be achieved by implementing a new circular economy business model for wine producers, where they will become microalgae biomass producers by utilising their own gaseous and liquid effluents, allowing them to diversify their revenues by valorizing microalgae biomass into food, cosmetics, agricultural products, and new Wines.
REDWine will rely on a complete consortium of 12 entities to achieve its goals, of which 1 ASS, 7 SMEs, 1 LE, 2 RTOs and 1 UNI. REDWine is coordinated by primary producers (the AVIPE wine producers association) harnessing the knowledge of an equitable balance of entities, a multidisciplinary team and assuring a degree of backup and overlapping between partners that reduce risk and gives assurances for its success in short- and long-terms.
Since the project start in May, and the wine harvest season starts in August, it was clear that there was no time to construct the proposed pilot. In order not to lose 2021 season, it was installed a small unit to start testing the idea of collecting CO2, storage and use it on a algae reactor. It was important to understand that to achieve good results from the CO2 capture the wine tank should be always closed. This small detail was a good start to teach how workers should work for this specific project. All the needed products that should be added during wine fermentation should be added by hoses connected to the tank and not by the top door.
With this installed unit, it was also important to demonstrate to farmers what the project was about. While they were waiting for their turn to deliver the grapes, they had the possibility to talk and question about REDWINE. It was interesting to see their interest and curiosity. This was probably the main achievement that allowed to demonstrate to farmers and interested companies, the possibility to capture CO2 at a small scale and produce a new product. This achievement was also important to define details and solve unexpected problems that could appear on the pilot unit. This small scale unit opens the possibility to implement similar solutions at smaller wineries with a low investment. Other achievements like the possibility to understand wine effluents and how can Chlorella use it to its development were also important.
With this demo unit, it was possible to involve WP2, WP3 and WP4 and to start to have some results that are in line on what was foreseen.
With optimization of the process, the harvest of Chlorella started and it was possible to start with its biocompounds extract activities, on WP5. With this WP and WP6, it will be possible to achieve project’s main objective to “diversifying revenue for wine producers who will valorise Chlorella biomass into food, cosmetics and agricultural products.”
For dissemination and communication activities, it was possible to show and explain REDWINE’s idea on several events. It was especially important the participation on Porto Protocol Carbon Management workshop where there was the possibility to speak to several wineries of all over the world: from USA to Australia, from South Africa to Chile. Participation on the European Biomass Conference and Exhibition as a speaker is also something to highlight. A press release was prepared for partners and was published in 7 Portuguese’ newspapers. NOVIS also wrote a article for a specialized magazine in Germany. It’s clear that the development of the project is giving more possibilities to partners to communicate and disseminate projects’ results.
WP1 started its tasks following the expected programme. Several meetings were held in order to fit REDWINE’s proposal on market, to develop a business model a business plan. A deliverable regarding analysis of European structures to support wine makers who incorporate microalgae production was also finished.
Project faced some constraints that is trying to solve. Municipality permit to build the demo pilot is delaying its construction but it’s expected to be solved in the following months.
However, more important, it was the problem emerged by the Ukraine-Russia war. This situation brought the lack of equipment and huge raise of prices of the equipment. NOVIS needed to change 6 times the initial proposal to capture and store CO2 to make the project possible.
With this installed unit, it was also important to demonstrate to farmers what the project was about. While they were waiting for their turn to deliver the grapes, they had the possibility to talk and question about REDWINE. It was interesting to see their interest and curiosity. This was probably the main achievement that allowed to demonstrate to farmers and interested companies, the possibility to capture CO2 at a small scale and produce a new product. This achievement was also important to define details and solve unexpected problems that could appear on the pilot unit. This small scale unit opens the possibility to implement similar solutions at smaller wineries with a low investment. Other achievements like the possibility to understand wine effluents and how can Chlorella use it to its development were also important.
With this demo unit, it was possible to involve WP2, WP3 and WP4 and to start to have some results that are in line on what was foreseen.
With optimization of the process, the harvest of Chlorella started and it was possible to start with its biocompounds extract activities, on WP5. With this WP and WP6, it will be possible to achieve project’s main objective to “diversifying revenue for wine producers who will valorise Chlorella biomass into food, cosmetics and agricultural products.”
For dissemination and communication activities, it was possible to show and explain REDWINE’s idea on several events. It was especially important the participation on Porto Protocol Carbon Management workshop where there was the possibility to speak to several wineries of all over the world: from USA to Australia, from South Africa to Chile. Participation on the European Biomass Conference and Exhibition as a speaker is also something to highlight. A press release was prepared for partners and was published in 7 Portuguese’ newspapers. NOVIS also wrote a article for a specialized magazine in Germany. It’s clear that the development of the project is giving more possibilities to partners to communicate and disseminate projects’ results.
WP1 started its tasks following the expected programme. Several meetings were held in order to fit REDWINE’s proposal on market, to develop a business model a business plan. A deliverable regarding analysis of European structures to support wine makers who incorporate microalgae production was also finished.
Project faced some constraints that is trying to solve. Municipality permit to build the demo pilot is delaying its construction but it’s expected to be solved in the following months.
However, more important, it was the problem emerged by the Ukraine-Russia war. This situation brought the lack of equipment and huge raise of prices of the equipment. NOVIS needed to change 6 times the initial proposal to capture and store CO2 to make the project possible.
There are some solutions to capture CO2 in wineries, but they are expensive and the goals are to use on production of calcium carbonate or to use directly on musts to avoid oxidation. There are also some solutions in industry that CO2 is captured and used on algae development but not on wineries. This project aims to merge both ideas into a very popular activity. Moreover, considering that there are some estimations that mentions the use of 10L of water per litre of wine, the possibility to use wine effluents on algae to produce cosmetics and biostimulants are innovative and ecological.
The impacts of the project - including the societal impacts of the project - will be greater the more advanced the work is, i.e. we believe that this section will be much more enriched in the next report. In any case, taking into account the work carried out in the period from 19/05/2021 to 30/04/2022. it is already possible to highlight some achievements for society, namely:
● The developed models for REDWine logistics and tailored models for non-conventional units (such as algae reactors) could provide an easy way to assess the conversion of CO2 into products and the logistics involved that are required by the public. In this sense, the work carried out could be used to show the general public how pollution could be transformed into valuable chemicals, improving their feelings about the CO2 producing industry.
● Following the characterisation and optimization of the conditions for the cultivation of Chlorella at 250 L scale in Palmela, a very clear contribution towards decarbonization and the implementation of the circular economy concept for micro-algae production was made.
The impacts of the project - including the societal impacts of the project - will be greater the more advanced the work is, i.e. we believe that this section will be much more enriched in the next report. In any case, taking into account the work carried out in the period from 19/05/2021 to 30/04/2022. it is already possible to highlight some achievements for society, namely:
● The developed models for REDWine logistics and tailored models for non-conventional units (such as algae reactors) could provide an easy way to assess the conversion of CO2 into products and the logistics involved that are required by the public. In this sense, the work carried out could be used to show the general public how pollution could be transformed into valuable chemicals, improving their feelings about the CO2 producing industry.
● Following the characterisation and optimization of the conditions for the cultivation of Chlorella at 250 L scale in Palmela, a very clear contribution towards decarbonization and the implementation of the circular economy concept for micro-algae production was made.