Project description
Textile waste and fungal solutions
Europe throws away vast amounts of textile waste each year. Most of it is incinerated or landfilled because mixed fibres are difficult to separate for recycling. Despite Europe’s transition to a circular economy, the handling of complex textile streams is problematic. The EU-funded WASTE2WEALTH project is turning to fungi for a solution. Specifically, it is using a tailored solid-state fermentation platform and proprietary fungal strains to confirm mixed textile waste into high-value products, such as biosurfactants, enzymes and biogas. A pilot biorefinery processing 200 tonnes per year will pave the way for a larger demonstration plant. By transforming discarded fabrics into sustainable biomaterials, WASTE2WEALTH aims to make circular textiles commercially viable and environmentally sound.
Objective
The EC’s Circular Economy Action Plan targets textiles as one of the sectors to be drastically transformed into a circular economy. However, the recycling of textile waste is severely limited by the need to accurately separate the different types of fibre, as they require separate recycling processes. This results in most of it currently being incinerated or landfilled.
At Novobiom, we valorise widely available resources currently under-exploited by harnessing the amazing ability that fungi exhibit in nature to recycle a wide range of materials. Our biorefinery platform implements a tailored solid-state fungal fermentation process, based on our exclusive fungal strain bank and fungal strain selection, development and optimisation process.
Our first application focuses on textile waste. By valorising unused textile waste, we offer a cost-effective alternative to recycle mixed waste streams, drastically reducing the textile products incinerated or sent to landfill while producing high-quality products (biosurfactants to substitute chemical-based surfactants, enzymes and biogas) at lower prices. These products are of interest in various industries (cosmetics, cleaning products, etc.).
During the project we will build a fungal biorefinery pilot plant (200 t/yr), operated with textile waste. After that, we will engineer and commission a flagship demo plant (12,000t/year). This will de-risk the project enough to open an investment round to finance the scale-up of the technology.
Once scaled, our biorefinery can enable the transformation towards circularity of complex waste streams and fulfil the needs of different customers (e.g. textile, cosmetics) with affordable high-quality sustainable biomaterials.
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: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology environmental engineering waste management waste treatment processes recycling
- engineering and technology materials engineering textiles
- engineering and technology industrial biotechnology biomaterials
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins enzymes
- engineering and technology industrial biotechnology bioprocessing technologies fermentation
You need to log in or register to use this function
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.3.1 - The European Innovation Council (EIC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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-EIC-ACC - HORIZON EIC Accelerator
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-EIC-2024-ACCELERATOR-02
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.
4000 LIEGE
Belgium
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.