Launch of European project leaded by CENER to develop a biorefinery concept based on mushroom residues
One of the clear strategies of the BBI JU is the
support to projects that develop new concepts of valorization of agroindustry
wastes. In this way, it attempts to create new business and value chains that
boost the bioeconomy growth. For instance, the PULP2VALUE project since July 2015 tries
to demonstrate a biorefinery system to refine sugar beet pulp and isolate high
value components for detergents, personal care, coatings, composites and other
applications. Now, other project focused on the use of spent mushroom substrate
is beginning.
Figure 1. Organic mushrooms (extracted from the
web page of Monaghan Mushrooms). The feedstock in the biorefinery concept
developed by BIOrescue is spent mushroom substrate
BIOrescue, which is the acronym of this project,
started last week with the kick off meeting of the work group in the 2G
Biofuels Centre of CENER in Aoiz (Navarra).
Below, the main available data about the project are summarize.
Key information
Title
|
Enhanced
bioconversion of agricultural residues through cascading use
|
General
objective
|
Develop and
demonstrate a new innovative biorefinery concept based on the cascading use
of spent mushroom substrate (SMS)
supplemented by wheat straw and other seasonal underutilised lignocellulosic
feedstocks (pruning residues, residual citrus peels and wastes).
This new concept will avoid disposal and
allow for the production of some biodegradable biobased products and
bioactive compounds that will help to replace the existing ones based on
fossil resources.
|
Budget
|
M€ 2.635 BBI JU contribution.
|
Duration
|
September 1st 2016 – August 31th 2019.
|
Partnership
|
Celignis
Limited (Ireland)
Clea
Technologies BV (Netherlands)
C-Tech
Innovation Limited (United Kingdom)
Fundación CENER-CIEMAT Spain)
Greenovate!
Europe (Belgium)
Imperial
College of Science Technology and Medicine (United Kingdom)
Max
Planck Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Wissenschaften EV (Germany)
Metgen Oy
(Finland)
Monaghan
Mushrooms Ireland (Ireland)
Universita degli studi di Napoli Federico II (Italy)
Zabala Innovation Consulting (Spain)
|
The technicians from the Biomass Department of
CENER work not only coordinating the project but also leading the task focused
on carrying out the fractioning of the SMS with the aim of valorize each
generated fraction. The project intends to achieve a 20% overall cost-reduction
in the enzymatic hydrolysis step, reach a 20% improvement in resource efficiency
and validate at pilot scale the production of bioproducts that are expected to
have superior properties and characteristics compared to fossil based ones.