Periodic Reporting for period 2 - CAFIPLA (Combining carboxylic acid production and fibre recovery as an innovative, cost-effective and sustainable pre-treatment process for heterogeneous bio-waste)
Période du rapport: 2021-12-01 au 2023-05-31
CAFIPLA tackled 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 per 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 worked on a radically innovative biomass pre-treatment approach for bio-economy applications The project developed an integrated biomass valorisation strategy that combines the carboxylic acid and fibre recovery platform (CAP/FRP). CAFIPLA firstly optimised 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 allowed the implementation of tailored valorisation strategies for both routes, which in turn allowed the use of heterogeneous biowaste as input, while still ensuring high overall yields. In the CAP, research focused 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 resulted in intermediates that could be applied in divers applications (packaging, insulation, construction, etc.). Finally, a TRL5 pilot was set up and demonstrated the CAFIPLA up-scaling potential. The implementation of the CAFIPLA approach will improve sustainability and cost-effectiveness of biomass pre-treatment. The project furthermore studied the biomass supply chain and the business models for future exploitation.
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 worked on a radically innovative biomass pre-treatment approach for bio-economy applications The project developed an integrated biomass valorisation strategy that combines the carboxylic acid and fibre recovery platform (CAP/FRP). CAFIPLA firstly optimised 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 allowed the implementation of tailored valorisation strategies for both routes, which in turn allowed the use of heterogeneous biowaste as input, while still ensuring high overall yields. In the CAP, research focused 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 resulted in intermediates that could be applied in divers applications (packaging, insulation, construction, etc.). Finally, a TRL5 pilot was set up and demonstrated the CAFIPLA up-scaling potential. The implementation of the CAFIPLA approach will improve sustainability and cost-effectiveness of biomass pre-treatment. The project furthermore studied the biomass supply chain and the business models for future exploitation.
Project started with a comprehensive market assessment for the biowaste derived bio-products. In parallel an analysis of the test case took place, assessing biomass availability and its potential to be used in the CAFIPLA approach. Investigations towards biomass stabilisation took place to ensure continuous supply of biomass at industrial scale. Lab scale process parameters could be established to transform municipal biowaste and co-substrates into short chain carboxylic acids or lactic acid. Extraction of fibres from recalcitrant biomass using natural deep eutectic solvents as well as via the dry route by drying, grinding and milling could be established. Fibres obtained were sent to external stakeholders to get feedback on possible application. After establishing the general process parameters, a technical feasibility assessment on the approach took place and the final design was decided. Afterwards the CAFIPLA biomass loop was implemented at the test site and operated. Process parameters and downstream processing was adapted to the TRL5 conditions. The pilot operations could be finalized successfully providing sufficient data for later up-scaling. In parallell, the research on valorisation of SCCA into caproic acid, PHA and microbial protein took place and provided interesting results such as PHBV with an high incorporation of valeric acid. To ensure sustainable developments, LCA, LCC and sLCA were performed successfully. Beside, sustainbility aspects were improved by validating that side streams of the CAFIPLA biomass loop can be used for biogas production and/or composting. Also, a safety assessment on the processes and final products took place focusing also on end-of-waste criteria as needed according to the waste directive. Finally, dissemination and exploitation pathways were established, launching a webpage as well as a newsletter. Furthermore, several video are available showing the general CAFIPLA concepts and/or operations of the CAFIPLA pilot.
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 CAFIPLA built, was 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 which could be successfully achieved. Overall, 63% of the recoverable carbon and nutrients in the bio-waste was 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 was successfully otimized to steer the hydrolysis process to create specific carboxylic acid spectra depending on the target application in the bio-based economy and/or to obtain a constant output quality / spectrum from fluctuating input. The FRP research focussed on the implementation of an environmentally friendly process for insoluble fibre extraction using natural deep eutectic solvents as well as by drying and milling to provide fibres for different applications. Any remaining organics after CAP-FRP were converted to biogas and/or compost using a modified DRANCO process. Afterwards, CAFIPLA demonstrated successfully 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 (composites, insulation, construction).
The main idea on which CAFIPLA built, was 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 which could be successfully achieved. Overall, 63% of the recoverable carbon and nutrients in the bio-waste was 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 was successfully otimized to steer the hydrolysis process to create specific carboxylic acid spectra depending on the target application in the bio-based economy and/or to obtain a constant output quality / spectrum from fluctuating input. The FRP research focussed on the implementation of an environmentally friendly process for insoluble fibre extraction using natural deep eutectic solvents as well as by drying and milling to provide fibres for different applications. Any remaining organics after CAP-FRP were converted to biogas and/or compost using a modified DRANCO process. Afterwards, CAFIPLA demonstrated successfully 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 (composites, insulation, construction).