Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CAFIPLA (Combining carboxylic acid production and fibre recovery as an innovative, cost-effective and sustainable pre-treatment process for heterogeneous bio-waste)
Reporting period: 2020-06-01 to 2021-11-30
CAFIPLA will tackle two socio-economic problems that are of increasing concern in the EU and beyond. The first problem concerns the growing feedstock demand from the bio-economy. With sustainability becoming more and more an important decision factor when buying consumer products, bio-based products are a fast-growing market. Although this is in se a positive trend, it leads to a higher demand for organic feedstocks, which are mainly coming from primary agricultural production (starch, sugar and vegetable oil). As such these are in direct competition with food and feed production and can lead to undesired deforestation or other land use changes to farmland. Furthermore, with an import dependency of > 50%, it also leaves Europe vulnerable to international price fluctuations for these commodities.
The second problem concerns the environmental, economic and social problems associated with (heterogeneous) bio-waste treatment. These waste streams have a very diverse origin and composition and their quantity and quality can vary throughout the year. A landfill ban on bio-waste has already eliminated the most noxious form of dealing with these waste types yet the treatment is currently still limited to incineration, or AD and composting at best. The use of these bio-waste streams as alternative feedstock for the bio-industry is currently limited because of the heterogeneous composition of these waste streams, and/or because of the fluctuating or limited availability.
The 3-year CAFIPLA project will therefore radically alter the biomass pre-treatment approach for bio-economy applications The project will develop an integrated biomass valorisation strategy that combines the carboxylic acid and fibre recovery platform (CAP/FRP). CAFIPLA firstly optimises the separation of the easily biodegradable fraction and recalcitrant biomass, as input for the Carboxylic Acid Platform (CAP) and Fibre Recovery Platform (FRP), respectively. This allows the implementation of tailored valorisation strategies for both routes, which in turn allows the use of heterogeneous biowaste as input, while still ensuring high overall yields. In the CAP, research will focus on process control strategies to obtain specific spectra of carboxylic acids to feed into bioproduction of microbial protein, PHA or caproic acid biooil. In the FRP, fractionation into different fibre ranges will result in intermediates that can be valorised as packaging material or insulation. A TRL5 pilot will demonstrate the CAFIPLA up-scaling potential. The implementation of the CAFIPLA approach will improve sustainability and cost-effectiveness of biomass pre-treatment. The project will furthermore study the biomass supply chain and the business models for future implementation.
The second problem concerns the environmental, economic and social problems associated with (heterogeneous) bio-waste treatment. These waste streams have a very diverse origin and composition and their quantity and quality can vary throughout the year. A landfill ban on bio-waste has already eliminated the most noxious form of dealing with these waste types yet the treatment is currently still limited to incineration, or AD and composting at best. The use of these bio-waste streams as alternative feedstock for the bio-industry is currently limited because of the heterogeneous composition of these waste streams, and/or because of the fluctuating or limited availability.
The 3-year CAFIPLA project will therefore radically alter the biomass pre-treatment approach for bio-economy applications The project will develop an integrated biomass valorisation strategy that combines the carboxylic acid and fibre recovery platform (CAP/FRP). CAFIPLA firstly optimises the separation of the easily biodegradable fraction and recalcitrant biomass, as input for the Carboxylic Acid Platform (CAP) and Fibre Recovery Platform (FRP), respectively. This allows the implementation of tailored valorisation strategies for both routes, which in turn allows the use of heterogeneous biowaste as input, while still ensuring high overall yields. In the CAP, research will focus on process control strategies to obtain specific spectra of carboxylic acids to feed into bioproduction of microbial protein, PHA or caproic acid biooil. In the FRP, fractionation into different fibre ranges will result in intermediates that can be valorised as packaging material or insulation. A TRL5 pilot will demonstrate the CAFIPLA up-scaling potential. The implementation of the CAFIPLA approach will improve sustainability and cost-effectiveness of biomass pre-treatment. The project will furthermore study the biomass supply chain and the business models for future implementation.
The partners started with a comprehensive market assessment for the biowaste derived bio-products. In parallel an in-depth analysis of the test case took place, assessing biomass availability as well as its potential to be used in the CAFIPLA approach. Furthermore, investigations towards biomass stabilisation took place to ensure continuous supply of biomass to an industrial process. Additional, first process parameters could be established in lab scale to transform heterogenous biowaste into short chain carboxylic acids (SCCA) or lactic acid. Extraction of fibres from recalcitrant biomass using natural deep eutectic solvents could be established in lab scale and first positive feedback on different fibre fractions from external stakeholder could be obtained. The research on valorisation of SCCA into caproic acid, PHA and microbial protein provided first interesting results. To ensure sustainable developments, data collection for LCA, LCC and sLCA were initiated and first assessments done. Also, safety assessment on the processes and final products is on the way. Finally, dissemination and exploitation pathways were established, launching a webpage as well as a newsletter.
The bioeconomy still heavily relies on input biomass that competes with food production (sugar, starch, oil), while no competitive technology is available to valorise under-used waste streams. Bio-waste (municipal, agricultural or industrial) is widely abundant and locally available, and in most cases is considered an economic and environmental burden. The application of these waste streams is often restricted due to the heterogeneous composition, the limited amounts within a given area, the discontinuous availability or a combination hereof, making these waste streams an untapped feedstock with high potential. The heterogeneity of bio-waste streams limits a straight-forward treatment process with high yields, or necessitates extreme process conditions, e.g. in case of lignin-containing residues as input for the sugar platform. Some bio-waste streams are homogenous and would therefore be suitable in a state-of-the-art sugar platform, but often these bio-waste streams are only available in too low amounts within a certain area to facilitate an economic feasible process. Combining feedstocks to reach critical mass again creates heterogeneity which brings us back to the first restriction.
The main idea on which the CAFIPLA project is built, is to combine two complementary pre-treatment processes to provide an economic attractive solution to the aforementioned problems and unlock the potential of these heterogeneous bio-waste streams as a source of secondary raw materials. Overall, 63% of the recoverable carbon and nutrients in the bio-waste will be upcycled to two types of platform intermediate products: SCCA and fibres. The first pre-treatment process concerns the CAP, focusing on the easily degradable organics part of bio-waste. The CAP will be otimized to steer the hydrolysis process to create a specific carboxylic acid spectrum depending on the target application in the bio-based economy and/or o obtaining a constant output quality / spectrum from fluctuating input. The FRP research focusses on the implementation of an environmentally friendly process for insoluble fibre extraction using natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES) and the provision of fibres for different applications considering differences in feedstock / biomass supply. Any remaining organics after CAP-FRP will be converted to biogas and/or compost using a modified DRANCO process. Afterwards, CAFIPLA will demonstrate the application potential of the platform intermediates for various added-value end-products such biopolymer PHA (bioplastics), microbial protein (food/feed/fertilizer), caproic acid (chemical) or fibres for divers’ applications.
The main idea on which the CAFIPLA project is built, is to combine two complementary pre-treatment processes to provide an economic attractive solution to the aforementioned problems and unlock the potential of these heterogeneous bio-waste streams as a source of secondary raw materials. Overall, 63% of the recoverable carbon and nutrients in the bio-waste will be upcycled to two types of platform intermediate products: SCCA and fibres. The first pre-treatment process concerns the CAP, focusing on the easily degradable organics part of bio-waste. The CAP will be otimized to steer the hydrolysis process to create a specific carboxylic acid spectrum depending on the target application in the bio-based economy and/or o obtaining a constant output quality / spectrum from fluctuating input. The FRP research focusses on the implementation of an environmentally friendly process for insoluble fibre extraction using natural deep eutectic solvents (NADES) and the provision of fibres for different applications considering differences in feedstock / biomass supply. Any remaining organics after CAP-FRP will be converted to biogas and/or compost using a modified DRANCO process. Afterwards, CAFIPLA will demonstrate the application potential of the platform intermediates for various added-value end-products such biopolymer PHA (bioplastics), microbial protein (food/feed/fertilizer), caproic acid (chemical) or fibres for divers’ applications.