Stainable biorefineries by developing VFA platform
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | Högskolan i Borås - Akademin för textil, teknik och ekonomi |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 4 328 081 |
| Project duration | November 2020 - October 2023 |
| Status | Completed |
| Venture | Circular and biobased economy |
Important results from the project
Volatile fatty acids were produced from food, agricultural and paper industry wastes (200-600 mg VFAs/g volatile solids). Unique-in-kind pilot-scale membrane bioreactor was developed for VFAs production (35 L/h). The filtrate was used in feeding trials of 40 lambs and single cell protein production. Using ion exchange and nanofiltration, concentrated (6-times) and purified (>95% NH4+ removed) VFAs filtrate was applied in wastewater denitrification replacing 50% of methanol. Bioplastics with a yield of 50% of dry mass was produced microbially from VFAs (96% PHB).
Expected long term effects
A waste-based biorefinery concept was realized by merging the two technologies of anaerobic digestion and membrane filtration conventionally used for the production of biogas and wastewater treatment to convert a variety of organic waste streams to volatile fatty acids as platform chemicals. For long-term VFAs fermentation and recovery, a unique-in-kind pilot-scale membrane bioreactor was designed and developed. VFAs produced were successfully applied as ruminant feed and were converted to bioplastics, carbon source for wastewater denitrification and single cell proteins.
Approach and implementation
To realize the objectives of the project, batch assays were conducted on a variety of organic waste streams to optimize conditions and parameters yielding the highest VFAs that were later applied in benchtop MBRs to synchronize fermentation and filtration prior to the design and development of a pilot-scale MBR. Project results from the scaled up MBR process present the great potential in building a waste biorefinery revolving around the production VFAs that can further be directly or via bioconversion be commercialized as bioplastics, chemical building blocks, animal feed etc.