Descripción del proyecto
Plataforma biotecnológica holística para sustituir el petróleo y los aceites vegetales por biomasa fúngica
A medida que se intensifica la demanda de biomasa en nuestro cambio global hacia una economía hipocarbónica, surgen retos, sobre todo a la hora de equilibrar el uso de los recursos biológicos. El equipo del proyecto VALUABLE, financiado con fondos europeos, se centrará en la valorización de la biomasa no vegetal. De este modo, VALUABLE pretende demostrar la viabilidad económica de la producción de aceites de levadura a partir de biomasa de «Aspergillus niger», un flujo residual infrautilizado de la producción industrial de ácido cítrico. Además de la valorización de los flujos de residuos de biomasa fúngica ricos en quitina como fuentes no animales de quitosano derivado enzimáticamente, que puede utilizarse en la producción de cosméticos y productos químicos de origen biológico como los adhesivos. Al utilizar eficazmente los flujos de residuos de biomasa fúngica, el equipo de VALUABLE allana el camino hacia una bioeconomía sostenible, preservando la tierra para la biodiversidad y la producción de alimentos, a la vez que reduce el uso de materias primas fósiles.
Objetivo
Biomass is at the core of the bioeconomy and the demand for it is increasing worldwide as we transition to a low-carbon economy. Biomass is predominantly used for feed and food products (~55% of global biomass available) followed by bioenergy, with only 8% to date used for bio-based materials despite offering an alternative to fossil-derived chemicals. To promote the development and commercialisation of bio-based materials, an abundance of feedstocks (i.e. sugar, starch, vegetable oil and ethanol) are required. However, this may lead to biodiversity and land use change as potentially more land would be needed to enable the replacement of fossil raw materials, estimated at an additional 2.8 billion tonnes (Bt) Dry Matter (DM) biomass per year, which competes with food and feed production.
To achieve a sizeable and economically feasible bioeconomy, new technologies are therefore needed in order to diversify and deliver processes that can use available, underutilised and more sustainable biomass feedstocks to leave more land available for biodiversity protection and food production, whilst facilitating the substitution of fossil-based resources with bio-based ones.
VALUABLE will focus on the demonstration of a platform non-plant-based biomass valorisation process for the production of yeast oils as a viable substitute for fossil-based and plant-based products (such as palm oil) in applications such as cosmetics, adhesives and resins. More specifically, the VALUABLE process will valorise Aspergillus niger biomass feedstock to demonstrate:
1. Techno-economic viability of producing oils as a substitute for fossil based and plant-based products for applications in cosmetics and bio-based chemicals (e.g. resins for coatings) markets.
2. Better valorisation of fungal biomass waste streams rich in chitin for the production of non-animal derived chitosan and chitosan oligomers for use in applications such as cosmetics and bio-based chemicals (e.g. adhesives) markets.
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HORIZON-IA - HORIZON Innovation ActionsCoordinador
80333 Muenchen
Alemania