Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CIRCLE (Circular Initiative for Recycling and waste Conversion into Lactate Extracts)
Período documentado: 2024-09-01 hasta 2025-08-31
To be competitive and to ensure sustainability in the face of global challenges and technological advancements, the European industrial sector must urgently introduce drastic changes to comply with net-zero targets, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and to shift towards an environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable development. Highly efficient and cost-effective biorefinery systems are recognised as solid solutions that support our industrial transition towards this direction. Nonetheless, it remains a crucial challenge to achieve a sustainable model for their adequate implementation.
To tackle this issue, CIRCLE aims to demonstrate at industrial scale a first-of-its-kind retrofitted biorefinery for the valorisation of food waste streams and additional biomasses into high-value bio-based chemicals and intermediates, such as lactic acid (LA) as well as derived products, including polylactic acid (PLA), upgrading and expanding the production capacity of an existing biogas plant. The production process will take advantage of the existing facility and of the renewable energy (biogas and heat) directly produced, thus making the production highly energy efficient. The proposed technology is highly scalable and replicable as it is designed to be deployed as an ‘add-on’ to existing food waste processing infrastructures. CIRCLE will reach the TRL8 by the end of the project by demonstrating the production of LA, lactate salt (LS), and industrial and polymer-grade LA. The application of these bio-based chemicals and intermediates will be demonstrated through the production of a wide portfolio of bio-based products fully compliant with market requirements, such as cosmetics products (for LA and LS), cleaning products (for LA) as well as the automotive, cosmetics and food packaging sectors (for PLA). The production of recyclable PLA, which can replace fossil-based polypropylene (PP) in a wide range of applications, will make a significant impact on greenhouse gas emissions and environmental pollution avoidance.
To tackle this issue, CIRCLE aims to demonstrate at industrial scale a first-of-its-kind retrofitted biorefinery for the valorisation of food waste streams and additional biomasses into high-value bio-based chemicals and intermediates, such as lactic acid (LA) as well as derived products, including polylactic acid (PLA), upgrading and expanding the production capacity of an existing biogas plant. The production process will take advantage of the existing facility and of the renewable energy (biogas and heat) directly produced, thus making the production highly energy efficient. The proposed technology is highly scalable and replicable as it is designed to be deployed as an ‘add-on’ to existing food waste processing infrastructures. CIRCLE will reach the TRL8 by the end of the project by demonstrating the production of LA, lactate salt (LS), and industrial and polymer-grade LA. The application of these bio-based chemicals and intermediates will be demonstrated through the production of a wide portfolio of bio-based products fully compliant with market requirements, such as cosmetics products (for LA and LS), cleaning products (for LA) as well as the automotive, cosmetics and food packaging sectors (for PLA). The production of recyclable PLA, which can replace fossil-based polypropylene (PP) in a wide range of applications, will make a significant impact on greenhouse gas emissions and environmental pollution avoidance.
The CIRCLE consortium is working to:
• Build an industrial-scale CIRCLE biorefinery by retrofitting a pre-existing facility.
• Maximise the flexibility of the energy supply within the plant by expanding the use of renewable energy resources to increase the overall resource efficiency of the process.
• Increase the valorisation of multiple by-product streams in the CIRCLE flagship plant, expanding the current feedstock portfolio processed in the existing biorefinery and showing the industrial conversion of food waste and other by-products into high-value bio-based compounds.
• Demonstrate the industrial-scale operation of the new CIRCLE “multi-purpose” biorefinery.
• Validate and demonstrate the wide industrial-level applicability of the bio-based chemical materials and how they meet the market requirements.
• Ensure the sustainability and circularity of the value chain.
• Demonstrate the replication potential of the new concept in the European Union and associated countries by offering a widely scalable technology that can be rapidly deployed across multiple sites.
• Demonstrate the feasibility of an innovative biorefinery concept and the opportunities in the circular bio-based value chains.
• Ensure the successful exploitation and commercialisation of the CIRCLE project results.
• Build an industrial-scale CIRCLE biorefinery by retrofitting a pre-existing facility.
• Maximise the flexibility of the energy supply within the plant by expanding the use of renewable energy resources to increase the overall resource efficiency of the process.
• Increase the valorisation of multiple by-product streams in the CIRCLE flagship plant, expanding the current feedstock portfolio processed in the existing biorefinery and showing the industrial conversion of food waste and other by-products into high-value bio-based compounds.
• Demonstrate the industrial-scale operation of the new CIRCLE “multi-purpose” biorefinery.
• Validate and demonstrate the wide industrial-level applicability of the bio-based chemical materials and how they meet the market requirements.
• Ensure the sustainability and circularity of the value chain.
• Demonstrate the replication potential of the new concept in the European Union and associated countries by offering a widely scalable technology that can be rapidly deployed across multiple sites.
• Demonstrate the feasibility of an innovative biorefinery concept and the opportunities in the circular bio-based value chains.
• Ensure the successful exploitation and commercialisation of the CIRCLE project results.
By increasing the product scope of an existing biorefinery, CIRCLE expects to:
• Develop a replicable industrial-scale retrofitted biorefinery in Europe, benefitting different target groups.
• Diversify product portfolios, enabling waste management companies to enhance economic viability, promote higher resource efficiency and energy consumption at a local level, and create job opportunities across the European Union.
• Implement sustainable biorefinery processes to ensure economic and environmental sustainability. This will allow for new knowledge on processes and methods for lactide/PLA synthesis and purification, as well as the sustainable creation of locally sourced feedstock. Furthermore, it will advance the offering of a competitive and environmentally friendly solution to existing products and contribute to the objectives of climate neutrality and zero pollution.
• Demonstrate the wide applicability of LA and its derivatives as well as PLA for fully marketable and socially acceptable products by promoting the scientific understanding of LA usage for cosmetic and cleaning products and PLA for packaging and automotive uses, in addition to making bio-based products reach customers and consumers across sectors, thereby becoming mainstream in Europe.
• Develop a replicable industrial-scale retrofitted biorefinery in Europe, benefitting different target groups.
• Diversify product portfolios, enabling waste management companies to enhance economic viability, promote higher resource efficiency and energy consumption at a local level, and create job opportunities across the European Union.
• Implement sustainable biorefinery processes to ensure economic and environmental sustainability. This will allow for new knowledge on processes and methods for lactide/PLA synthesis and purification, as well as the sustainable creation of locally sourced feedstock. Furthermore, it will advance the offering of a competitive and environmentally friendly solution to existing products and contribute to the objectives of climate neutrality and zero pollution.
• Demonstrate the wide applicability of LA and its derivatives as well as PLA for fully marketable and socially acceptable products by promoting the scientific understanding of LA usage for cosmetic and cleaning products and PLA for packaging and automotive uses, in addition to making bio-based products reach customers and consumers across sectors, thereby becoming mainstream in Europe.