Launch of European project leaded by CENER to develop a biorefinery concept based on mushroom residues

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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.

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