New Leases in Life: Turn BioWaste into a valuable resource

Central Macedonia, a region in the northern part of Greece, is a key producer of food. It produces a quarter of the country’s agricultural production and is a source of many Greek table olives, peaches, wine and dairy products. However, this productivity results in large amounts of agricultural waste.

EU researchers now investigate how and how this waste can be recycled and reused, developing a wide range of useful bio-based products, including fertilizers, pesticides and even nutrient additives. I’m doing it.

Spanish environmental engineer Pedro Villanueva Rey coordinates a team of researchers from France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the UK to bring the flow of various biological waste across Europe into new and desirable resources. I’m changing it.

“Introducing these secondary raw materials into the supply chain could help drive the transition to a bio-based economy,” said Villanueva Rey. He is the senior project manager at Cetaqua, the water technology research institute in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

However, to achieve this, the industry and consumers need to assure that biologists are safe and suitable for reuse.

While many household waste has been classified and recycled recently, unwanted biological by-products from industrial and agricultural processes are still widely discarded. There is also an additional dilemma of how to get rid of it. One obstacle to reuse is the need for quality control and certification.

The research team combines expertise in a three-year collaboration called Biorecer. Researchers are tracking and assessing the wider reuse of biological waste as an alternative to materials derived from fossil fuels, such as oil, coal, and natural gas.

They are also considering ways to ensure consistency and safety of various potential biovost ingredients.

Tap on a new potential resource

In Greece, researchers are investigating possible scenarios for reusing biowaste from sources such as tree crop pruning, residues from olive and grape processing, and grain waste waste. . They are also looking at three other potential biovost reuse scenarios in Spain, Italy and Sweden.

In Galicia, Spain, the EU’s leading fishing hub, Spain is considering reuse options for the large amount of fish waste and cooking water produced by the fish canning industry. The biorector team works closely with Galician bio-based companies to develop value chains for potential products from these waste sources, from algae and urban sewage sludge.

Research in the Lombardy region of Italy will focus primarily on sewage, organic urban waste, and urban bio waste from food waste from large corporations. Potential products that can be derived from these ingredients include bio-based chemicals and fertilizers.

Meanwhile, in the Versternland region of northeastern Sweden, industrial forestry (which represents about 10-12% of the Swedish industry in terms of employment and sales) produces a large amount of what Swedes call grottos ( (debris consisting of branches, roots and tops of trees), sawdust, bark, sludge.

Researchers are looking into whether the green chemicals and materials can incorporate materials derived from this waste.

Market development

The aim is that it is worth reusing the resulting recycled materials. This could be a win-win situation, bringing BioWaste new life, reducing the use of non-renewable resources, and reducing the overall amount of waste.

“Developing a real market related to all of these products may be the starting point,” said Villanueva Rey.

As part of these efforts, the team aims to develop guidelines to improve the certification schemes for biological organisms. One standard is the impact on the lifetime environment, taking into account factors such as carbon emissions, presence of toxic compounds, transport and storage.

They believe that better certification can increase the level of acceptance by industry and society, leading to the use of recycled biological waste in a wider range of products.

The team examined various existing certification schemes and informed the study. These include ISCC Plus, which has a voluntary certification system that is globally applicable to the biological economy. This mainly refers to alternative ingredients such as biomass (such as cellulose and agricultural residues), as well as waste such as used edible oils, animal fats, and solid waste.

Researchers also considered certification schemes such as the Forest Stewardship Council and the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials.

Seal of approval

The Biorecer team will develop a comprehensive framework to complement and enhance existing certification schemes for biochemical and biomaterials, in addition to current schemes focusing primarily on the energy, food and animal feed sectors. I’m aiming to do that.

Cetaqua’s Project Manager Lucía González Monjardin helps identify gaps.

“For example, if you use solvents to produce bioplastics, there may be no certification scheme to ensure that the solvent is bio-based,” she said. “By adding one, we provide a guarantee to those who use these raw materials that comply with regulations and achieve the same results as traditional options.”

Their goal is to enhance connectivity and collaboration between producers, traders and consumers who track the sustainability of Biol Sauce and implement certification schemes and businesses that want to accredit products.

Added value

In Greece, biorector case studies are at a critical stage in which actual data are integrated with researcher’s findings on sustainability standards for raw materials.

“We want to be able to provide data-driven recommendations for the sustainable use of these biological resources,” he said at the postdock chemical engineer at the Center for Research and Technology’s Chemical Process and Energy Resources Research Institute. One Dr. Sotiris Patios said. (Certh) A case study is being conducted in Thessaloniki, Greece.

One purpose is to promote the use of biocirclers more when farmers use biocirclers more when materials that were previously considered to be traditional waste are further used or recycled in the loop without falling out of the economy. It is to help increase economic value.

“For example, farmers may burn waste from activities such as pruning or use it for less valuable economic activities such as the production of biogas and biofertilizers,” Patios said. “We want to develop a value chain with higher economic value, such as broader biomaterials and biochemicals.”

An example is the production of wooden construction products, such as chipboards made from composite biomaterials.

Data-driven guidance

However, collecting reliable data can be challenging. This relates to Dr. George Banius, Research Director at CERTH’s Institute for Bioeconomic and Agricultural Technology.

“It’s important to fill some of these data gaps in order to encourage a transition away from the linear economy, which leaves a lot of waste in bio-based circular waste,” he said. According to Banias, to have reliable data, it is necessary to develop tracking and traceability schemes.

If Biorecer Collaboration can achieve this, it can also help you fight misleading environmental tactics, or greenwash. This is when companies use advertising that makes false environmental claims. This is a practice that has moved the European Parliament to outlaws.

“One of the scope of the project is to ease Greenwashing, and there’s been a lot of debate in the EU,” Banias said.

This article was originally published in Horizon the EU Research and Innovation Magazine.