Objective ACIES BIO, a SME with a decade of profound experience and market understanding, has developed an innovative and disruptive technology already recognized within SME INST Phase 1 to address a major unsolved high-cost environmental challenge for the world’s dairy industry: acid waste whey. Around 200 million tons of waste whey is produced annually, of which nearly 50% goes unprocessed and ends up clogging the wastewater treatment stations or, in less regulated environments, is released into streams thus heavily polluting the environment. The W2V project aims to bring to market a unique patent-pending eco-innovation bioprocess to utilize acid waste whey as a primary ingredient for microbial fermentation to produce sustainable high value product. Its key objective is to launch production of organic vitamin B12 on the market through eco-innovative technology, which uses waste whey as input substrate and produces as a result high value product vitamin B12 and purified water. It is solving the unmet challenge of sustainable milk processing with Make-Use-Reuse principle: from milk industries (cheese production) through waste whey management to vitamin B12 production used for the animal feed additives industry and cleaned water reused in the dairy industry again. The implementation of W2V technology will greatly reduce the environmental footprint, lower the production costs and increase competitiveness of dairy companies. Particularly, W2V technology will be highly relevant for European dairy industry, where most companies consist of small-medium sized dairy factories, which cannot afford costly processing facilities for disposal of acid whey. W2V will generate an entirely new type of product for the EU and global markets: an organic vitamin B12-enriched microbial biomass, which can be used as very high quality animal feed, creating a perfect example of sustainable and economical circular zero-waste economy and bringing production of vitamin B12 back to Europe. Fields of science engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringwater treatment processeswastewater treatment processesagricultural sciencesanimal and dairy sciencedairyagricultural sciencesagricultural biotechnologybiomassengineering and technologyindustrial biotechnologybioprocessing technologiesfermentationagricultural sciencesanimal and dairy sciencedomestic animalsanimal husbandryanimal feed Programme(s) H2020-EU.3.5. - SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Climate action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials Main Programme H2020-EU.2.3.1. - Mainstreaming SME support, especially through a dedicated instrument Topic(s) SC5-20-2015 - Boosting the potential of small businesses for eco-innovation and a sustainable supply of raw materials Call for proposal H2020-SMEInst-2014-2015 See other projects for this call Sub call H2020-SMEINST-2-2015 Funding Scheme SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2 Coordinator ACIES BIO BIOTEHNOLOSKE RAZISKAVE IN RAZVOJ DOO Net EU contribution € 1 781 937,50 Address TEHNOLOSKI PARK 21 1000 Ljubljana Slovenia See on map SME The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed. Yes Region Slovenija Zahodna Slovenija Osrednjeslovenska Activity type Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Total cost € 2 545 625,00
