FUNGUSCHAIN project - Mushrooms waste is in vogue
Mushrooms waste valorisation is a burning topic
in the European bioeconomy as is shown by two of the last projects supported by
BBI JU. On
the one hand, BIOrescue which is aimed to develop and demonstrate a new
innovative biorefinery concept based on the cascading use of spent mushroom substrate
(learn more about BIOrescue).
On the other hand, the protagonist of this post, FUNGUSCHAIN which will make
use of new cascading processes to extract high value molecules from the fungal
residue following the requirements of a range of end-users.
The mushroom farming industry in Europe
generates more than 60,000 tons of mushroom disregarded outputs each week. These
are basically treated as an unwanted by-product and used for low value
applications. FUNGUSCHAIN aims to turn those outcomes into high value products by
means of setting up innovative processes in a new biorefinery concept. A first
extraction will yield antimicrobials, antioxidants, proteins, polyols and polysaccharides.
Further processing will complete the value chain for delivering cleaning, food
and plastic products. The remaining residues will be used for composting or
biogas synthesis, thus closing the agricultural cycle.
Industrial lines from end-users will be
modified and adapted to the products to be developed: food supplements for
elderlies, cleaning products, novel biobased thermoplastic masterbatches,
bioplasticizers and industrial film products (thin bags and gloves <15
microns, partially recycled thick bags >50 microns and mulching).
Figure 1. FUNGUSCHAIN biorefinery approach
(extracted from a presentation
about the project of Aitiip)
Key information
Title
|
Valorisation
of mushroom agrowastes to obtain high value products (FUNGUSCHAIN)
|
Call
|
BBI JU 2015
VC3 (Value chain 3: The next generation
agro-based value chains)
|
Biorefinery
concept
|
Feedstock:
agricultural residues coming from mushroom (Agaricus Bisporus).
Primary
products: high value bio-based additives (antioxidants, antimicrobials,
proteins), lipids and polysaccharides (glucans and fermentable sugars).
Secondary
products: bioplasticizers (from lipids), biopolymers (from polysaccharides),
compost and/or biogas (using remaining side streams).
Processes:
extraction (Microwave Assisted Extraction and Pressurised Hot Water
Extraction), sacharification, fermentation, composting and anaerobic
digestion.
|
Budget
|
Total
cost: € 8,143,661 / BBI JU contribution: € 5,700,547
|
Duration
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From 01/11/2016 to 31/10/2020
|
Coordinator
|
BioDetection
Systems B.V.
|
Partnership
|
4 large
industries: Corbion Purac (Netherlands), Novamont (Italy), Monaghan Mushrooms
Ireland (Ireland) and Saponia d.d. Osijek (Croatia).
8 SMEs: BioDetection
Systems B.V. (Netherlands), Biotrend (Portugal), biozoon (Germany), Condensia
Quimica (Spain), Miplast (Croatia), Neem Biotech (United Kingdom), OWS
(Belgium) and TECNARO (Germany).
4
research and technology development entities: Aitiip Centro Tecnológico
(Spain), European Centre for Nanostructured Polymers (Italy), Universidad de
Alicante (Spain) and KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden).
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