ACTIVATEC BIOMASS PURIFIER

Biocity, Nottingham, UK

Activatec develops and scales up processes for the production of biobased chemicals, materials and ingredients.

Enriched PPB biomass will contain PHAs among others. In order to get a biopolymer that can be used for other industries, it must be extracted and purified. Activatec is developing new purification steps to be used in the demo plant with lower cost, higher performance, and lower environmental impact in comparison to conventional methods.

On the other hand, Ectoine must be purified to be used for cosmetic applications. Activatec is developing the downstream operations for large scale production to obtain high purity and quantity of commercial grade ectoine.

Activatec Ltd counts on a specialized team of engineers (chemical and biochemical engineers), researchers and lab technicians which develops the following unit operations and activities:

• Hydrolysis, fermentation, enzymatic catalysis, solvent extraction
• Liquid-solid / Liquid-liquid extraction, Supercritical fluid extraction
• Solid-liquid separations (centrifugation and filtration)
• Freeze drying, preparative chromatography, adsorption, crystallization
• Analytical methods development and validation
• Access to versatile facilities and experts in highly complex processes

Moreover, using the experimental results, Activatec is able to carry out:

• Process flowsheet design and simulation
• Technical and economic analysis
• Manage procurement and installation activities

AGRO INNOVATION INTERNATIONAL-RG FERTILIZER PRODUCTION PLANT

Saint Malo, France

AII-RG will produce and test the slow-release fertilizer with enriched biomass and biodegradable PHA/cellulose coating.

An industrial pilot plant with a capacity of 5,000 T/y will be used. AII-RG can produce different batches (from 25kg to 3 tons) as scale-up. AII-RG can adjust production parameters (temperature, humidity, debit, etc) at different stages of the process (pre-granulation, granulation, and coating). Once the process is validated at
pilot scale, it will be upscaled at demo level, leveraging the fertilizer production plantfacility owned by AII-RG.

ITENE FACILITIES

Valencia, Spain

ITENE is the reference research centre in packaging, transport & logistics. Founded in 1994, currently employs 165 people and provides business solutions with an integrated view of the supply chain, from raw materials to the design and development of packaging, optimization of logistics and distribution of goods until the products reach consumers and are ultimately managed as waste, all within a framework of sustainable performance.

Located in Valencia (Spain), ITENE has 7,150 m2 of facilities, of which 3.000 m2 are distributed in 6 laboratories, 5 pilot plants and 1 simulation centre with a complete scientific-technological equipment.

LABORATORIES

• Chemical characterisation of materials
• Physical-mechanical characterisation of materials
• Microbiological analysis
• Nano-security
• Packaging assessment
• Approval of dangerous goods packaging

PILOT PLANTS

• Packaging
• New materials and processing
• Packaging production
• Modification and synthesis of additives
• Compostability assessment of packaging materials

CENTRES

• Transportation simulation

With these infrastructures ITENE carries out its research projects, technological development and innovation, acting globally throughout the whole distribution cycle:

• Development of the raw materials that will form part of the materials.
• Development of materials with improved properties that will form part of the packaging.
• Development of packaging that best adapt to the cycle of production, distribution and end-user requirements.
• Innovation in the logistics and distribution processes for its distribution, optimization and efficiency.
• Interaction with the consumer.
• Treatment of waste once the packaging comes to the end of its life.

In the DEEP PURPLE project framework, ITENE will employ their 5, 30 and 50 L fermentors to hydrolyse the cellulose recovered from wastewater to transform it into 2G sugars in WP2, as well as, the nanocellulose pilot plant, with a current production of 2 kg/day, to obtain the CNFs.

In WP4, ITENE will develop composites based on PHA and CNFs in its twin co-rotating Mini extruder (X-plore). The test probes will be chemical and mechanical characterised by means of different available techniques such as DSC, TGA or DRX.

LAS DEHESAS BIOMETHANATION PLANT

Madrid, Spain

At Las Dehesas municipal solid waste treatment plant the organic fraction of the municipal solid waste (OFMSW) will be pretreated. It will be treated by means of thermal hydrolysis with steam explosion process in order to solubilize the content of organic matter and nutrients.

Demo-scale thermal hydrolysis of the OFMSW is going to be optimized to maximize the release of the organic matter, minimizing the release of nutrients into the liquid fraction and minimizing energy consumption.

The biogas produced from anaerobic digestion will be converted in ectoine in 2 m³ fermenter using the design and operational guidelines optimized at pilot scale at University of Valladolid. The ectoine will be produced to manufacture cosmetics by RNB.

MATER-BIOTECH DEMO FACILITY

Adria, Italy

Novamont group will validate the use of alternative sources of sugars originated from urban biowaste  as feedstock for the production of building blocks through direct fermentation. This biobased monomer will be then processed at progressively increasing scales to validate its use into polymerization and reactive extrusion with the final objective of obtaining biodegradable and compostable biomaterials for film applications.

Novamont owns lab and pilot facilities both for sugars fermentation and polymerization+reactive extrusion. Once the overall value chain is validated, the process will be up-scaled at demo level leveraging Novamont larger-scale facilities.

NATUREPLAST BIO-PLASTIC

Ifs, Normandy, France

NaturePlast is a distributor and a compounder of bioplastics.

The plant is currently equipped with a 27mm twin-screw extrusion and various compounds are produced on demand according to customer’s requests.

Current production rates: 6 tons/year (equipment bought in November 2017), production capacity 100 tons/year
Expected production rate: new equipment to be bought in 2 years, production capacity 2000 tons/year
Types of product manufactured: compounds based on bioplastics
Raw materials needed: PLA, PHA, other biopolyesters and biopolymers, additives, etc.

NaturePlast is involved in the formulation of PHA + NFC compounds, lab development and production of selected compounds.

The demo pilot will have the capacity to value up to 50 tons of PHA and cellulose.

PHA obtained from the PPB biodigestion will be combined with cellullose obtained from wastewater treatment to develop a cosmetic packaging for ectoine-based cosmetic. The packaging will remain biodegradable and will be a part of OFMSW used to produce new PHAs and NFC.