Objective
Every year, nearly 360 million pigs, sheep, goats and cattle as well as several billion poultry are killed in EU slaughterhouses according to the FAO. Processing feedstock produces large amounts of animal waste and wastewaters, more than 16 million tons each year in Europe. These waste are a key challenge as they cannot be treated as standard waste due to banning legislation and technical issues.
Anaerobic Digestion is considered an interesting alternative for waste management and animal byproducts (ABP) are seen as an excellent substrate due to a high content of lipids and proteins
However, although the use of ABP to produce biogas represents a great opportunity for animal processors and biogas plant operators, there are limitations to its development:
BPV is interesting from an industrial point of view because it reduces the number of steps of the waste processing and save energy (by 40%), is more efficient for biogas production than classic waste (28%), easy to implement and can be made serially at industrial premises. In the EU, biogas is a renewable biofuel, which does not contribute to climate change and can substitute to fossil fuels for production of heat and power. Combined with ABP, it contributes to solve the challenge of difficult to process waste.
Fields of science
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringwater treatment processeswastewater treatment processes
- engineering and technologyenvironmental biotechnologybioremediationbioreactors
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteins
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuels
- engineering and technologyindustrial biotechnologybiomaterialsbiofuels
Programme(s)
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1
Coordinator
26013 Crema
Italy
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