EMBRACED has been set up to demonstrate an innovative and integrated biorefinery model transforming AHP waste into bio-based materials and products. This biorefinery model is based on:
• the valorisation of the cellulosic fraction from used AHP for the production of bio-based and biodegradable products
• a cascading approach, where side-streams from the bio-based processes are valorised to increase cost competitiveness and environmental sustainability
• a circular economy approach that may help minimize the use of primary resources.
This model has been supported by piloting separate collection of AHP waste from households and Institutions in Amsterdam, Paris and Verona. The AHP waste was collected through so-called Smart Bins that were placed in front of day care centers, retail stores, and in public places. Based on this and on the experience acquired by Fater and Contarina in managing the existing industrial scale mechanical pre-treatment plant based in Italy, a scenario analysis for the logistic and conferral plan to achieve 10,000 t/y of feedstock collected for the biorefinery has been completed.
The first step of the biorefinery has been implemented at Contarina’s with Fater mechanical pre-treatment plant, which allowed recovering they key components of AHPs that are mainly: cellulose, plastic and super absorbent polymer. In EMBRACED, the scale-up, adaptation and enhancement of the existing pre-treatment plant have been demonstrated to be achievable and a protocol for the quality assurance of the conferred material has been defined. The fine-tuning of the business case should be defined case by case depending on the local conditions in terms of local market opportunities, local legislation and authorization procedures together with the macroeconomic scenario.
Novamont, in collaboration with Fater and Contarina, has hence demonstrated an innovative value chain (Value Chain A), successfully converting the cellulosic fraction recovered from AHP waste into sugars then used to produce via a biotechnological process bio-based building blocks for application into biodegradable and compostable bioplastics for different applications. Efficient and sustainable protocols for converting AHP waste into bioplastic formulations have been validated through a virtuous integration of biotechnology and chemistry. The conversion of AHP waste cellulose into bio-based building blocks and polymers has been successfully accomplished at progressively increasing scales achieving good results in terms of yield and quality of biopolymers. Novamont has finally scaled-up the value chain processes at demo scale by completing the installation of the process units and their integration at Novamont’s premises through its third part Mater-Biotech. The obtained biopolymers have been also successfully processed into the formulation of biodegradable and compostable biomaterials which have been validated into films for non-food packaging applications as well as mulch biodegradable in soil. Organic by-products and co-products obtained during the main steps of the value chain process have been also successfully validated for biogas production via bio-digestion in anaerobic conditions with performances comparable to those observed with other industrial feedstocks generally used for biogas production. As a further step for the valorisation of all by products, Novamont has also evaluated the opportunity to valorise the solid fraction of digested sludge coming from the anaerobic digestion process via a composting process, demonstrating the possibility to obtain a high-quality compost compliant with the Italian limits currently applied to the compost obtained from the organic fraction of the municipal solid waste, to be used in improvement and regeneration of soil.
Starting from the conversion of AHP waste cellulose into sugars, already demonstrated in Value Chain A, Novamont has demonstrated also a second value chain (Value Chain B), using these sugars into a biotechnological process for the production of PHB, leveraging on its experience in the field. The protocol of the fermentation process to obtain PHB from the AHP waste cellulose sugars has been designed and implemented by Novamont at pilot scale, along with an environmentally friendly downstream process for PHB extraction and purification, with promising results in view of future developments. Also for this value chain, Novamont, in cooperation with Fertinagro, has evaluated the opportunity to valorise the co-products obtained from the biotechnological process for the formulation of plant bio-fertilizers and bio-stimulants. PHB has been also validated by Novamont for developing further its biomaterials relying on the properties of this biopolymer for improving the biodegradation and disintegration rates of the materials.
