Project data
Starting date: 21-01-2021
Project Duration: 36 months
Call (part) identifier: H2020-MSCA-IF-2019
Project grant agreement N°: 898804
EC Funding: € 259 398,72
Keywords: Algae industry waste-stream; Sustainable valorization; Integrated Biorefinery; Clean technology approach; Bioactive compounds; Supercritical Fluids; Subcritical treatment; Value-added bioproducts.
Summary
With the advent of industrial mass food production, food waste has become a global problem related to the loss of avoidable food and inefficient treatment strategies of the unavoidable food waste. 90 Million of food waste are generated annually by the food industry only across the EU-27. (according to the European Commission).
The unsustainable management strategies generally adopted to control the food industry waste stream creates significant obstacles to the global food security agenda but also tend to induced severe and increasing environmental concerns.
Food waste and by-product streams generally discarded are reservoirs of unexploited compounds with huge potentials in the establishment of more sustainable food, health, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, nutraceutical, renewable biomaterials, biofuel, and energy industry sectors.
Marine algae, commonly known as seaweeds, are among the most sustainable biomasses for both industrial food and non-food applications. The exploitation of this marine biomass in the food industry in return generates a high level of biologically active compounds-rich waste stream.
The ALGWAS-BIOR project is an EU-funded project that proposes the implementation of cascade, green and integrated biorefinery technologies that durably add commercial values to the discarded waste material with high beneficial profits. The project primarily focuses on the valorization of the organic waste stream released from the food industry and uses the algae industry as an exemplar prototype. The comprehensive biorefining concept proposed concentrates combined cutting-edge process and performant data generation supported by automated process control systems.
The results will support the development of commercial technologies that will reinforce the competitiveness and the sustainability of the food industry´s value chain. They aim also to strengthen the strategy of the EU in its support of a circular bio-based economy and the creation of viable green profits.