Chemical building blocks from versatile MSW biorefinery

Objective

PERCAL will exploit Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) as feedstock to develop intermediate chemical products at high yield and low impurity level with huge industrial interest. These will be complementary to the bioethanol (current PERSEO technology), to achieve a cascade valorisation of the MSW components, i.e.:
• Lactic acid (LA) to produce: 1) Eco-friendly ethyl lactate solvents by reactive distillation from lactic acid & bio-ethanol to be used in cleaning products and inks and 2) hot-melt adhesives for cardboard and other non-food applications in combination with maleic anhydride by reactive extrusion.
• Succinic acid (SA) as an intermediate building blocks to production of polyols for the polyurethane industry.
• Biosurfactants by chemical and/or microbiological modification of protein and lipid fraction from remaining fraction of MSW fermentation.
IIn order to minimize the MSW heterogeneous composition (due to seasonal and origin variability driven by local economic, social and climate conditions) limitations as a fermentation feedstock, four main innovations will be proposed: i) New enzymatic cocktails to maximize hydrolysis of fermentable organic matter with low inhibitors production, ii) the use of high yield, specific and robust strains for each selected acid, iii) the extraction of fermentation by-products acting as inhibitors to succinic acid production via novel membrane electrolysis employing an integrated continuous fermentation coupled with simultaneous organic acid removal in comparison with SA sequential fermentation followed by its separation using an electrodialysis-based and iv) optimize simultaneous saccharification and fermentation for lactic acid production followed by a downstream separation process based on membrane electrodialysis. To maximize the yield and purity of target organic acids, continuous and single step fermentation process will be prioritized in order to allow their integration in the PERSEO plant.

Field of science

/engineering and technology/industrial biotechnology/biomaterials/bioplastics/polylactic acid
/natural sciences/chemical sciences/organic chemistry/organic acids
/natural sciences/chemical sciences/electrochemistry/electrolysis
/natural sciences/chemical sciences/polymer science/polyurethane
/engineering and technology/industrial biotechnology/bioprocessing technologies/fermentation
/engineering and technology/chemical engineering/separation technologies/desalination/electrodialysis
/natural sciences/biological sciences/biochemistry/biomolecules/proteins
/engineering and technology/environmental biotechnology/bioremediation/compost
/engineering and technology/chemical engineering/separation technologies/distillation
/natural sciences/chemical sciences/organic chemistry/hydrocarbons
/engineering and technology/environmental engineering/waste management/waste treatment processes
/engineering and technology/materials engineering/textiles
/natural sciences/biological sciences/biochemistry/biomolecules/lipids

Funding Scheme

BBI-RIA - Bio-based Industries Research and Innovation action

Coordinator

INDUSTRIAS MECANICAS ALCUDIA SL

Address

Avenida De Carlet 76
46250 L Alcudia
Spain

Activity type

Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)

EU contribution

€ 404 693,98

Objective

Field of science

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Call for proposal

Funding Scheme

Coordinator

Participants (14)

Share this page

Download