ECOINNOVERA-IPTOSS (Innovations for optimal use of organic side-streams and waste)

• Forschungsstelle: BAFU
• Projektnummer: UTF 410.06.12
• Projekttitel Englisch: ECOINNOVERA-IPTOSS (Innovations for optimal use of organic side-streams and waste)

Schlüsselwörter (Englisch)

Biowaste, cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, pectin, brewer’s spent grain, BSG,REPRO, Reducing Food Processing Waste, biocatalytic, nanomaterialbased, nanobiocatalysts, sequential treatment of lignocellulose, degradation products, enzymatic activity, membrane technology, organic waste, side-stream valorisation

Kurzbeschreibung (Englisch)

Biowastes and side-streams from food and beverage processing plants, such as vegetable processing and brewing  are generally rich in a variety of sophisticated and valuable natural molecules i.e. cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin and pectin that have a great potential to be directly exploited in the chemical, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, feed and energy industry and/or used as biological substrates for the production of high added-value functional bioproducts.

Great attention is raised toward a side-stream from the beverage industry, brewer’s spent grain (BSG), is here used as feedstock resource to produce fuel and valuable biomolecules.

The current biowaste and side-stream valorisation and the novel biotechnological approaches for the transformation of waste into bioproducts are still relatively limited, primarily due to the lack of readily exploitable technologies.

More than 33 million tonnes of BSG is generated worldwide every year. In the EU, this    is close to 10 million tonnes, which equates to almost 10% of the EU’s annual food and drink industry waste production.

Large portions of these materials are disposed by means of anaerobic digestion and composting, incineration or landfilling, the latter becoming increasingly restricted by     the EU regulations in order to reduce its intrinsic environmental (i.e. greenhouse gas emission) and health hazards (Landfill Directive, 1999/31/EC, and other related EU Legislation).

Eco-efficient management of organic waste is a worldwide growing issue.

The groundwork for enzymatic fractionation of BSG has been already carried out in the EU project REPRO (“Reducing Food Processing Waste”).

The present project is part of the European ECO-INNOVERA research program IPTOSS. The following institutions/organisations are partners in the consortium engaged in this program:

Organisation	Country	Funding organisation
VTT	Finland	Tekes
University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW)	Switzerland	Federal Office for the Environment FOEN
Mzymes Ltd	Finland	Tekes
Bionactis Ltd.	Switzerland	Federal Office for the Environment FOEN

The present contract constricts on the part of the FHNW and Bionactis, funded by the FOEN.

Ergebnisse gemäss Vertrag (Englisch)

1 Description of the release of components upon non-proteolytic enzyme treatments.

2 Combinations of different enzymes for effective degradation of whole BSG and of both the soluble and insoluble fibres are developed. Milestone 1.

3 A series of lignocellulose modifying enzymes are screened and several multi-enzyme nanomaterial conjugates are produced by (co-)immobilizing various amounts of different enzymes.

4 Tests in membrane reactors (MBRs) in a continuous mode for sequential treatment of lignocellulose of BSG are done and a description of the performances of the nanobiocatalysts and the characterization of the degradation products and enzymatic activity is available. Milestone 2.

5 The extracted fractions from BSG, such as phenolics, polysaccharides and lipids are characterized, their technological functionalities evaluated and the adiabatic proceses are compared and benchmarked against currently applied methods for both phenol- and sugar-extraction.

6 A sustainability analysis of the developed processes is done including material and energy balances, comparison of different waste and side stream utilization path-ways to current practices by using plant level key figures and an evaluation of economic process integration possibilities. Milestone 3.

7 Edition of the final report representing the results of point 1 to 6.

8 Elements of text and illustrations or photos for printing a fact-sheet for public.

9 Presentation of the results at the occasion of a scientific colloquium at the BAFU (FOEN) with power-point presentation.

Projektziele (Englisch)

1 Aim of the project
The aim of the project is to develop a concept based on suitable fractionation by which the biochemical content of the material flow is better utilized for the production of new, valuable molecules. In close cooperation with the industry the sustainability of the innovation is shown and brought to the market.

2 Aims for this project of FHNW and Bionactis
The aim is to develop and apply a new biocatalytic nanomaterialbased process for the value-adding depolymerization of lignocellulosic fraction of Brewer’s spent grain (BSG).

Beschreibung der Resultate (Englisch)

The targeted fractionation concept of IPTOSS consists of adiabatic extraction, steam explosion and enzymatic carbohydrate hydrolysis, followed by separation of protein and lignin fractions and enzymatic depolymerization of lignin.

Adiabatic technology for pretreatment and recovery of value-added compounds from BSG was tested. The treatment effectively removed lipids, without co-extraction of lignin, carbohydrates or proteins. Additionally, adiabatic conditioning was applied as pretreatment technology. However, harsher pretreatments were favorable for solubilization of carbohydrates: steam explosion and ethanol cooking substantially improved the enzymatic conversion of carbohydrates into soluble sugars.

Alkaline extraction with protease enzymes and acid precipitation were studied as a means to extract protein and lignin. The use of protease enzymes enabled nearly 100% extraction of protein from both untreated and pretreated BSG. However, complete fractionation of lignin and protein was not achieved suggesting strong interactions between lignin and protein.

A two-step process was designed for depolymerization of lignin, consisting of 1) enzymatic oxidation using laccases immobilized on magnetite particles, and 2) formic acid cooking to depolymerize the oxidized lignin. By this method, partial lignin depolymerization was achieved, and monomeric degradation products like vanillic acid, vanillin, syringaldehyde, acetovanillon, and 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde were identified.

Sustainability and techno-economic feasibility of BSG valorization was evaluated. Results indicate that most value can be obtained from protein. High enzyme costs and limited revenues reduce the economic feasibility of sugar production.

Umsetzung und Anwendungen (Englisch)

As a result of IPTOSS, improved fractionation technologies for valorization of BSG are available to be further optimized, demonstrated at pilot scale and taken into use by the industry. IPTOSS was not targeted to develop a complete process which could be directly commercialized. Instead, increased raw material understanding and valuable information on the fractionation processes and their feasibility was obtained. This information was needed to lead future research and development work towards the most suitable fractionation concepts and targeted fractions. Results of the project represent a necessary step taken towards feasible fractionation and product development based on BSG components.

Weiteres Vorgehen (Englisch)

FHNW is currently involved in two projects to further improve and optimize the developed lignin depolymerization process.

Publikationen / Ergebnisse (Englisch)

Three oral presentations on lignin depolymerisation and immobilization of enzymes have been given by FHNW at 1) Lignin 2014 - biosynthesis and utilization, Umeå, 27.8.2014, 2) 16th International Biotechnology Symposium and Exhibition, Fortaleza, 16.9.2014 and 3) Fourth International Conference on Lignocellulosic Ethanol, Landshut, 25.9.2014. Another oral presentation was given by VTT at the Ecomondo International Trade Fair of Material and Energy Recovery and Sustainable Development, Rimini, 5.-8.11.2014. A conference paper was published as a part of the Ecomondo proceedings.

A poster presentation on BSG pretreatment and carbohydrate fractionation was given by VTT at the conference Trends in Brewing, Ghent, 14-17.4.2014. Another poster on BSG protein and lignin fractionation was presented by VTT at the 35th European Brewery Convention (EBC), Porto, 24.-28.5.2015. Articles on BSG valorisation were published in the School of Life Sciences FHNW Research Report 2013/2014 and in a Finnish industry magazine Mallas&Olut October/2014. Additionally, a brochure of IPTOSS was produced.