From waste to value: Transforming organic waste into biodegradable bioplastics

Descrizione del progetto

Bioplastiche biodegradabili di PHA prodotte da batteri

I rifiuti di plastica rappresentano una grave minaccia per il sistema acquatico, poiché la loro decomposizione può durare fino a 2 000 anni. Il Parlamento europeo prevede di raggiungere un livello zero-plastica entro il 2030, conformando di conseguenza la sua legislazione. Questo fatto pone una seria sfida all’industria della plastica, che deve passare a soluzioni ecocompatibili. Le bioplastiche di PHA biodegradabili e prodotte da batteri potrebbero emergere come alternativa. Tuttavia, gli elevati costi di produzione rendono la tecnologia non competitiva. Il progetto VEnvirotech, finanziato dall’UE, propone una soluzione basata sulla biotecnologia che utilizzando i batteri trasforma i rifiuti organici in bioplastiche di PHA biodegradabili a costi notevolmente inferiori. Grazie a questa tecnologia innovativa si prevede una riduzione del 30 % dei costi di gestione dei rifiuti e del 50 % del prezzo della bioplastica.

Obiettivo

Every year 8M tonnes of plastics trash enter the sea. Plastic materials that leak into the environment are a global pollution problem as they may take up to 2.000 years to degrade. The European Parliament agreed on measures to eliminate single-use plastics by 2030 as part of the EU Plastics Strategy. We have to be aware about the need to shift our industry and the use of biodegradable bioplastics. A potential solution are PHA bioplastics, biodegradable and produced by bacteria. Unfortunately, because of their costly production process, currently marketed PHA (5-20€/kg) cannot compete with conventional plastics (1-2€/kg)
VEnvirotech Biotechnology is a biotechnology start-up founded in April 2018 aiming to offer a solution to the plastic problem by transform organic waste into biodegradable PHA bioplastics while using bacteria. Our innovation relies on the application of biotechnology to organic waste treatment processes at industrial scale to obtain a revalorized product in the form of bioplastic. We have developed two processes: a waste treatment process that uses bacteria to digest organic waste from industrial companies. By inducing feeding and famine cycles to bacteria with the grinded and fermented organic waste, bacteria accumulate PHA bioplastic as energy reserve. This selective pressure process is repeated in our VE-Box a portable processing plant capable of producing high quality PHA biodegradable bioplastics as added-value from organic waste. The bacteria with PHA is taken from the VE-Box to VEnvirotech’s centralized plants to extract, purify and formulate our VE-0plastic.
We can reduce by 30% the costs of waste management and by 50% the price of bioplastic. The opportunity in the global waste management market and bioplastics market represents a combined TAM of €447B by 2024. We have defined a commercialization strategy to start in Spain by 2022 and expand to Europe in the following years. By 2024 we expect to have €75M in revenues and a net profit of €11M

Campo scientifico

Programma(i)

Argomento(i)

EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020 - SME instrument

Invito a presentare proposte

H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020

Vedi altri progetti per questo bando

Bando secondario

H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-1

Meccanismo di finanziamento

SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1

Coordinatore

VENVIROTECH BIOTECHNOLOGY SL

Contribution nette de l'UE

€ 50 000,00

Indirizzo

CARRE MAR MEDITERRANIA 30, POL. IND. TORRE DEL REC
08130 SANTA PERPETUA DE MOGODA
Spagna

PMI

Sì

Regione

Este Cataluña Barcelona

Tipo di attività

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

Collegamenti

Contatta l’organizzazione

Partecipazione a programmi di R&I dell'UE

Rete di collaborazione HORIZON

Costo totale

€ 71 429,00