July was the month dedicated to the BioeconomyatHome!

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Biovoices EU project launched the online campaign #bioeconomyAtHome to educate and communicate basic terminology and innovations related with the bioeconomy and the bio-based industry.

ENABLING project was invited to participate on the campaign and July was dedicated to it. ITABIA with CORE Innovation created 3 educational cards answering to the following questions:

1. Is biomass only for bioenergy?

2. Is all biomass subject to the same regulation?

3. Is the bioeconomy a promising sector?

Additionally, Vito Pigniatelli, from ENEA, gave an interview to BIOVOICES Bioeconomy Stories, a series of online interviews .

Watch BIOVOICES Bioeconomy Stories #4: The ENABLING project here.

Wastes from primary agricultural production, such as banana or pineapple residues, cotton waste, etc.

It is collected and bought from local farmers. This waste is further processed at the incubation center of the Uganda Industrial Research Institute (UIRI), where handmade paper is produced from the waste. It is then used to produce end products, such as eco-bags, various types of cards, decorative papers, etc.

Local farmer groups provide raw materials and benefit from skills training and outreach programmes. Oribags Innovations Ltd. is responsible for waste collection, processing and marketing the products. Uganda Industrial Research Institute provides processing facilities and technical support as well as marketing support.

Uganda Women Entrepreneurs Association supports the initiative in terms of networking, mentoring and entrepreneurship training.

Read more here.

Wilderhof. is a company producing strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries, in Belgium.

But it is not only that. The company steps beyond its own supply chain and enters the circular economy.
How?

Optiberry

More than 15% of these berries do not enter the fresh market because of quality reasons. Part of these non-premium fruit finds a destination in the industry but are sold at dumping prices.

OPTIBERRY targets innovative processing and biorefinery/extraction concepts to food prototypes and (non)-food ingredients for sustainable use of berry biomass available, especially the non-premium fruit. The project will result in high added value (none)-food applications to process or market the non-premium class fruit of raspberry, strawberry, and blackberry (Figure 1). This valorisation will result in a more resilient berry supply chain, creating a secure and long-lasting sustainable relationship between the berry grower and its potential customers.

Visit Wilderhof website for further information.

Learn more about the project partners here.

As part of Enabling project, Wirelessinfo partner is developing an atlas of interesting practice examples. The Best Practices Atlas is intended for presentation collected best BBP (Bio based Products and Processes) practices, from inside and outside Europe, that are wholly or partly transferable to other regions, or serve as an inspiration for partners in the value chain. An interactive web based tool will provide easy to find information on the best practices identified.

In the current version of the Atlas, the individual examples were stored in the PostGIS database, allowing easy administration and updating of the individual examples. The database structure was designed in such a way that examples of good practice also from other areas could be developed and published there in the future.

Each single practice can be shared via its own URI (e.g. https://atlasbestpractices.com/#bp087-hydrolysis-of-chicken-feathers) and all practices can be found at www.atlasbestpractices.com.

Rapid Oil Industry Co. Ltd. is a company founded in 2006 in accordance with national and European regulation for the production of ecologically clean energy biobased products for food, feed and energy markets.

A high percentage of rare fatty acids is contained in the sidestreams of biodisesel and food oil production, obtained by the vegetable oils of the seeds of rape, soya and sunflower.

In addition to food additive, the fatty acids are used in the cosmetic industries as stabilizers and foam suppressors. Sodium and potassium salts of the superior acids are used in the production of soaps and surfactants.

In the process of oil preparation, the sub-products containing fatty acids and their sodium salts are released and processed until receiving the commercial product.

One of the factors for the development of this good practice is the geographical position, which is convenient for the production of oilseed crops in the Region. In accordance with the current agricultural policy, the raw materials used in the production of biodiesel, may be grown on low-quality land, which would otherwise be classified as non-cultivable. This configuration allows a steady availability of biomass for the company, collecting the material directly from the farmers and storing it in the company facilities.

Partnership with other stakeholders (the Bulgaria NABB and in EU scale - the European organisation of biodiesel producers – European Biodiesel Board (EBB), Brussels, Belgium) has been a crucial step in the development of the business model.

– The business model

Lignoloc wood nails is an improved and innovative solution in the market of wood connection systems.

The product is an example for the use of beechwood that is part of the natural biodiversity in mountainous central European tree population. Within the last 100 years, the population of beeches have been replaced by fast growing spruces and pines, leading to climate and biodiversity instabilities in the forest sites (e.g windthrow, bark beetles, etc.). This led to an annually growing amount of damaged wood and low prices due to decreasing quality.

The restoration of Beech trees in its natural environment is contributing to higher demand for hardwood which has a higher quality and can be sold at better prices. The model is also promoting a sustainable forest practice that requires lower maintenance expenditures due to the appropriate ecosystem where the trees are grown.

The transformation of forestry monocultures into sustainable mixed forest is also subsidized (between 1.700 - 3.500 €/ha) depending on the degree of transformation.

The value chain starts with foresters providing high quality beech wood for nail production to the wood processing industry, which produces the nails and standardized nail-stacks. The business model required the involvement of the pneumatic nail guns manufacturer which had to adapt the model of pneumatic nail guns.

The quality of the nails is equal to metallic nails and thus are of high value in the wood-construction sector.

The Lignoloc wood-nail technology is a new available technology on the market and allows dynamic designs in interior construction, wood building and furniture production.

– The product

The BECK Fastener Group is a family business founded in 1904. For over 80 years, BECK has been one of the world’s leading manufacturers of innovative fastening solutions in the field of magazine staples and nails.

The company has enlarged its portfolio with production of wood nails, an innovative solution in the market of wood connection systems. The product was developed by the in-house research department in cooperation with the University of Hamburg as a result of continuous innovation and research efforts in order to stay on top of the market.

The wood nails are made of beechwood and shaped to fit the stack system of pneumatic nail guns.  The special design of the nail tip and the large amount of heat generated by friction when the nail is driven in, cause the lignin of the wooden nail to weld with the surrounding wood to form a substance-to-substance bond.

The “Lignoloc” is the first type of a biobased wood connection system, based on the principle of lignin-welding and thus a new form of technique for wood connection.

The product carries a number of innovative solutions to end users, such as:

Quick and simple processing with pneumatic nail guns

Hardly any water absorption, so no expansion

High holding power thanks to lignin welding

Resistance to fungal infestation

No streaking or bleeding on the wood

More environmentally friendly than metal fasteners

Installed significantly faster than wood dowels

No pre-drilling

No wood glue necessary

Made of indigenous beech wood

Better fire protection in wood structure than steel or metal fasteners

No thermal bridges, so better insulation values

Tensile strength similar to aluminum nails (~ 250 N/mm²)

Less tool wear when cutting nailed wooden components subsequently

The leather industry is one of the most successful industries. But leather making requires a lot of toxic chemicals and animal products thus making it problematic. Both the environmentalists and activists for animal rights, oppose it. Recently, two Mexican entrepreneurs created cactus ‘leather’ that is both eco-friendly and feels like real leather!

Marte Cázarez and Adrián López Velarde have come with an innovative method of making vegan leather using cactus plants. They look utterly realistic as if made from real leather! They have named their product Desserto which is made of cacti from Zacatecas’ plantation. These cacti have a very thick and rugged skin. This gives it a real leather-like feel and look.

The idea of using this raw material was conceived because this plant does not need any water to grow, and there is plenty of it throughout the Mexican Republic.

The method to make it is pretty simple. It starts with cutting the mature leaves from the organic cactus plants. Then they go through cleaning after which they are mashed. This mash is left in the sunlight for 3 days before processing. This certified vegan cactus leather can be used for up to 10 years!

Photo credits: DESSERTO

– The business model

The processing of wood raw materials generates 40 percent by-products, including around 4 million cubic meters of sawdust. Most of this is a valuable raw material for the paper and board industry, and a lot of it is now also thermally processed in the form of pellets or briquettes.

The development of Fasal has opened up further market opportunities for this by-product in the form of an injection moulding granulate that can be processed on all conventional injection moulding machines. The name stands for the main component fibres and cereals, i.e. the compound consists of wood fibres and a carbohydrate-rich raw material like maize. Both must have a certain degree of comminution and moisture content.

Fasal is the only "biological" injection moulding granulate that can compete with conventional plastics in price. Other alternatives are two to three times as expensive. Fasal is also used for technical parts such as stacking boxes, closures, tool handles, etc. Due to its special acoustic properties, whole clarinets have recently been produced, which are not inferior in sound quality to wood clarinets. A high commercial potential of this product is seen in the market for ecological toys.

Fasal was developed over many years at the Institute for Natural Product Technology at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (IFA Tulln, Niederösterreich, Austria).

Thanks to this practice farmers have an additional opportunity to sell wood residues in the market and benefit of better prices for value-added products.

In Austria, its suitability for floor tiles is being explored, while Italian suppliers in the furniture and automotive industries are investigating the possibility to apply Fasal in their products.

 – The process

In the Fasal wood practice, all ingredients are mixed dry and sent through an extruder. This machine originally comes from the food industry, where it is used, for example, for creating pasta patterns. Today, however, extrusion is one of the most important processes in the plastics industry. Through heating, pressuring and shearing energy, the ingredients are disintegrated, combined and formed into granules (small cylindrical grains).  The resulting thermoplastic material can be transformed into complex parts by injection moulding. The parts have a wood-like appearance and wood-like properties. Due to the isotropic structure, grain in the conventional sense cannot be achieved, but structures can be achieved by adding coarser wood fibres.

The material consists of about 60% wood flour from spruces and firs from sustainable forest management, the rest is high-quality recycled plastic or resins of bio-based origin.

Plastic usually comes from returnable cups used at festivals and events. These are sterilised, ground and inserted into the process together with wood shavings.

The fibre content can be up to 60 percent. Resins and processing aids are added to achieve certain properties. The resins can also be of natural origin - this results in a fully biological variant - or of synthetic origin, i.e. from fossil sources.

The parts have high strength values and high surface hardness, and can be polished, painted or dyed with colour granulates. The outstanding swelling and shrinkage behavior are impressive compared to wood. Fasal bodies are subject to almost no dimensional change with changing air humidity, some formulations also show high form fidelity at high temperatures.

The business model

An Irish company has developed a sustainable approach to process Ireland’s seaweed (Ascophyllum nodosum) for domestic and export uses. The company is known for its finest value-added seaweed products to boost the quality of animal feed, crop nutritional products and soil conditioners. The company was acquired in 2014 by a world leader in marine plant products to humans, animals and plants.

The company recognizes the importance of working with sustainable harvesting systems, as seaweed is the source of income for many people in the west coast of Ireland. Operations follow simple techniques of 4-5 years of fallowing and leaving sufficient material for regeneration, which allow harvesting for 5,000 to 28,000 wet tons per year. Indigenous seaweed harvesting by hand is a practice that has been carried out for generations.

This practice has supported the livelihoods of coastal communities, playing an important role in shaping the local foreshore environment while adding to the unique heritage around the coasts of Ireland. Whilst exports for alginate production ceased in 2009, 5,000–6,000 dry weight tons are currently being produced for the animal feed, horticulture, aquaculture, and cosmetics markets. Arramara is the major buyer of seaweed harvested in Ireland. It supplies the material for other industries and also makes high-value products for animal and plant nutrition. The producers get locally sourced, sustainably harvested and high-quality material for their products. Consistent supply of raw material is a great advantage for the producers, which can be achieved only through sustainable harvesting by experienced harvesters.

The final products

An Irish company has developed a new sustainable approach to process Ireland’s seaweed (Ascophyllum nodosum) for domestic and export uses. Harvesting operations are carried out by local harvesters, following either traditional or alternative harvesting methods but ensuring that the product is always gathered with sustainability in mind. Traditional hand harvesting is done using knives and sickles and, in recent years, an eco-friendly hand harvesting method using small boats and specially-designed rakes is being used.

The seaweed supplies many markets thanks to its organoleptic proprieties which can be used in the production of different biobased products, such as: Soil conditioner produced from seaweeds. It is granular in nature and improves water intake and nutrient uptake of the soil. It can help to correct deficiencies in the soil for crops cultivation, acting at physical, chemical and biological level. Soil nutrients. They are a seaweed concentrate that provides balanced nutrients and trace elements to plants. It helps in overall plant growth and develops resistance to pathogens and pests.

Animal feed products from seaweed, which maintain clean and safe products for animals to consume. The product fortifies animals’ enzymes, hormones and cells with an organic, more easily assimilated source of trace elements. It assists nutrient absorption, healthy growth and animal performance as well as maintains healthy intestinal functions by providing essential roughage.

The value chain

This practice presents an excellent example of synergy between several actors for the production of value-added products from marine biomass. The company purchases seaweed from local harvesters and ships it to their facility to perform the drying and milling processes before sold to the biobased industry in Ireland and worldwide. It currently employs 20 people directly and purchases seaweed from over 300 harvesters. Collaboration with Research organisations and universities is crucial to preserve the local habitat, manage the marine plant and plan a sustainable harvest.

The amount of seaweed available and ways to protect it is done by taking an alternative approach instead of assessing the weed on a weight-per-unit-area basis. The west coast resources of Ascophyllum were mapped using hand-held GPS (global positioning satellite) devices and Arc-Info, a software package to assist in mapping. This was done in collaboration with the Department of Geography & Coastal Resources Centre, University College, Cork.

The local seaweed buyers assess the production that an area can support. It was established that at least 130,000 wet tons of harvestable Ascophyllum are available annually on the west coast of Ireland, about 34,000 wet tons of which are being utilised at present. Experienced harvesters in Connemara region, west coast Ireland, have made an art of making seaweed bundles, locally called climíní (literally, bundles). Bundles are tied off with ropes and allowed to float to the top of the shore. These floating climíní are then rowed to small harbours where the weed is collected by lorries and transported by road to the drying plant.

Economic benefits

In this practice, Seaweed is hand harvested sustainably by local farmers without using any mechanical harvesting equipment. This means more harvesters required per unit ton compared to mechanical harvesting. The processing company has increased its price to harvesters by almost €10 to €53 a tonne, which translates into an important additional source of income for local farmers. 90% of the Irish seaweed harvested is naturally grown and only 10% is cultivated. Harvesters know by experience, how much to leave and how long for efficient regeneration.

In some areas, it is possible to harvest on a 3-year cycle, but in most of the cases a 4-year cycle harvesting is followed. The business model provides jobs for more than 400 people, and it is important to highlight that sustainable harvesting can ensure supply of seaweed for many decades, reducing provision risks and price volatility. In the latest year the algae global market rise from 1-3% per annum and the demand is growing due to all the research and new products created from algae.

Also, in terms of product streams, seaweed is used for multiple products from animal feed to cosmetic industry which keeps the demand and industry ever growing. Because the seaweed sourced from different regions of west coast is carefully recorded, consumer can track down the product to the source of origin.

The business model

The Biorefinery Grass project is promoting farm-to-farm bioeconomy symbiosis and demonstrate new business models for farmers. The project builds on a strong existing co-operative structure to evaluate new routes to market for cattle farmers, generating additional co-products using small-scale bioeconomy technologies.

For example, using co-op partners to upgrade the protein co-product into a finished and marketable compound feed for chickens and pigs. Farmers are producers and end-users of the products. Grass farmers will get benefit from high resource efficiency from the abundant grass available in the farm and produce products with good market value. The protein produced from the Grass whey can be supplied to the poultry and pig farmers. Symbiosis between grass producers, cattle farmers and pig and poultry farmers will make the supply chain logistics very efficient and ensure locally produced high quality products at low-cost.

An expected benefit of this approach includes a reduction in nitrogen and phosphorous losses (by 25%) and related emissions for the dairy sector by improving nitrogen use efficiency in dairy, whilst simultaneously reducing indirect GHG emissions through substitution of soybean imports for use in monogastric feed. Farmers and farmer co-operatives are the main practitioners involved in the chain.

On-site production in the farm will solve logistics of shipping the feedstock to central location and considering that it is a mobile biorefinery, it can move from one farm to the other, so there is no need for small biorefineries at each farm. This project is mainly focused on making farmers producers of high-quality products from biorefining the grass. This results in 40% increase in usable protein per hectare.

The process

The Biorefinery Grass project will promote farm-to-farm bioeconomy symbiosis and demonstrate new business models for farmers. The process is one that integrates well within existing agriculture system, producing a press-cake feed that is high in resistant protein (nondigested protein) for cattle, while also generating additional high value co-products that can represent an additional revenue source for farmers.

The model has a processing capacity of 2 tons fresh grass per hour. Proteins are the main compounds delivered after the process. They are isolated from grass by mechanical pressing without addition of any chemicals, providing a high-quality product suitable for animal feed. The isolated proteins are further separated in to protein fractions that can be efficiently utilised by ruminants and the crude fraction that can be used in pig and poultry industry.

This approach improves the efficiency of nitrogen use for milk production and allows to provide pigs and chickens with grass protein, an indigenous source of protein concentrate. An expected benefit of improving the nitrogen use efficiency for milk, includes a potential reduction in nitrogen loses and ammonia-related emissions for the dairy (and potentially beef) sector, while indirect emissions from soybean monogastric imports can also be displaced.

An additional value-added co-product in fructo-oligosaccharides (prebiotic sugars) will be extracted from the deproteinized grass whey. It has potential applications for the human and animal nutritional markets. Finally, once the relevant products are extracted, large volumes of nutrient-rich whey can be used as a fertilizer or as a co-substrate for biomethane production through anaerobic digestion.

The business model

In Ireland, biomass which is not utilised for livestock feeding occupies a large area of agricultural land. This biomass consists primarily of rushes (Juncus spp.), but also bracken (Pteridium), Furze (Ulex spp.), Hazel (Corylus) and heather (Calluna).

Every year, considerable expenditure is required to take care of these resources (i.e. cutting and disposal), either by chemical or mechanical means as to ensure compliance with EU grant schemes and for conservation purposes for the regional agri-environment scheme. This leads to the widespread use of chemical herbicides and the production of a considerable amount of biomass stream. The Biomass to Biochar project (BBFB) promotes a process to create value-added products in the form of biochar from unutilised agricultural biomass and make direct use of this product in the farm itself. In the BBFB process, farmers are both producers and end users, getting a direct benefit from this practice.

By producing biochar from this source of biomass, farmers gain three crucial benefits:

1. No use of chemicals to manage the unwanted biomass, so no unwanted costs in the farm

2. Farmers get paid for each round bale of rushes produced

3. The biochar has multiple uses in the farm in improving the soil properties such as increasing soil water holding capacity and improving soil microbiome.

The Irish Biochar Co-Operative has successfully been awarded EIP funding to produce biochar from rushes and other materials of little agricultural use.

The main actors involved in this initiative are: Biochar co-operative (mostly farmers), farmers involved in field trails, University College Dublin (UCD) and the Agriculture department for research and technology support.

The process

Biochar is a charcoal-like product produced from biomass under slow pyrolysis process which is heating biomass in low oxygen conditions to 400 – 800 C°. At this temperature much of the volatile contents are removed leaving a stable, carbon-rich biochar with an open porous structure.

The Biomass to Biochar project promotes a process to create value-added products in the form of biochar from unutilised agricultural biomass. Biochar can be used for soil improvers and as an addition for animal feeds. The project will build a Mobile Pyrolysis Unit (MPU) to turn the unwanted biomass farm into biochar in the farm itself. The biomass is baled and stored for biochar production. The bales will be pre chopped and then loaded into a hopper to pass through the pyrolysis unit. The final product will then be stored in bulk bags to be used by the land owners at a later date. The biochar will be tested for its properties and any potential toxicity. Once shown to be safe, it will be used on farm as feed input, slurry additive or soil amender to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve soil fertility and long-term carbon storage. Also biobased industries can purchase biochar and convert it into activated carbon, which has high value applications.

The activated carbon demand in Ireland is estimated at 1,275 ton per annum and, with a price range of €2,000 to €3,500/ton (dependent on material type), a market value ranging from €2.8 million to €3.7 million is identified. A market size of 8,000 tons in Europe is also estimated and, with a global average biochar price of €1,750/ton, suggests a European biochar market value of €14 million.

Successful factors

The biomass to biochar practice proposes immense benefit from using biochar in farm operations. Because of biochar’s ability to enhance the availability of plant nutrients, soil nutrient retention is improved. This means that less fertilizer needs to be applied, contributing to reduce the cost in crop production. Moreover, char-amended soils have shown reduced runoff of phosphorus into surface waters and leaching of nitrogen into groundwater.

So, pollution caused by fertilizer run-off into streams and rivers is reduced. Biochar has been shown to reduce the soil emissions of nitrous oxide (as a greenhouse gas, it is 310 times stronger than carbon dioxide) and improve the uptake of methane (21 times more potent than carbon dioxide). The markets and consumers using the crop produced from biochar practices for food or feed purposes can be sure that the product is produced sustainably in a circular economy approach and no harm is caused to the environment during the production process. This sparks consumer attention and trust because of the quality of the product and from the sustainability tag attached to it. Indeed, it is possible to identify a number of factors that are essential to a successful development of such a practice.

Specific actions should aim to:

• Educate farmers on the benefit of biochar and demonstrate the reduced costs and increased productivity with the use of biochar

• Give premium prices to the products produced by using biochar as soil amender instead of artificial products

• Make cooperatives for biochar production and train them on the technology and usage of the product.

• Create an online platform for trading the biomass and the finished product.

• Make farmers the leading stakeholders and managers of the process.

The BiomassTrade Platform is an online venue where biomass producers and biomass processers can meet to exchange currently not valorized organic biomass residues and organic by-products.

It allows interested users to search and offer organic biomass residues and byproducts, bio-based products as well as services in the different sectors of bioeconomy. The Platform operates EU-wide but aims to connect stakeholders on a regional level to foster the exchange of goods and services on a regional level.

What is more, the BiomassTrade Platofrm:

• Adds value to currently unused residues

• Directly brings together supplier and customer

• Creates new commercial opportunities for biomass producer

• Increases biomass availability for the bio-based industry

• Offers a simple and easy-to-use design

• Provides all services for free with no hidden costs at all

At the moment, the Platform operates in 10 EU languages at http://www.biomass-trade.eu/.

Germany is focusing on expanding its bioeconomy in the next few years. To this end, the Federal Cabinet adopted the new National Bioeconomy Strategy on January 15th, 2020.

The new strategy sets the framework for the successful expansion of the bioeconomy future research funding and focuses on:

• expanding biological knowledge and the use of biological processes and systems

• increasing availability of biogenic raw materials to the industry via cycle-oriented concepts

• integrating the bioeconomy strategy within the German economy

• scale up current and future cross-border cooperation

The bundling of the federal government's bioeconomy policy and recommendations of the bioeconomy council into an overall strategy, serves to link the previous goals and measures even more than before with the further development of the national research strategy.

Link to German national bioeconomy strategy: https://www.bmbf.de/files/bio%c3%b6konomiestrategie%20kabinett.pdf

The business Model

An Irish company is creating a platform algal and oral vaccine delivery technology to eliminate the use of harmful antibiotics in the fish we eat.

Aquaculture or fish farming is worth as much as $200bn globally and €149m in Ireland. Approximately 5% of the world’s fish stock is lost to infectious disease at a cost of more than $10bn annually. The way the industry does disease management for most aquaculture farms is that antibiotics are used excessively, ending up in food and ultimately in the diets of people or expelled as effluents into the environment.

The innovation can reduce or eliminate the use of antibiotics, reduce fish mortality rates in aquaculture farms, prevent bacterial and viral diseases from wiping out entire fish stocks, and improve global food security.

The microalgal oral vaccines can be mixed with fishmeal and fed to the fish, mimicking the natural feeding process. The natural digestion process of the fish unlocks the vaccine and triggers an immune response. In addition, because the vaccine is inside the microalgae chloroplast, it is protected by a rigid cell wall and is stable in harsh environmental conditions.

By using microalgae as an oral delivery vehicle, the labour and post-processing production costs can be substantially reduced, allowing to produce effective vaccines that are much more affordable and user-friendly.

Aquaculture farmers will get immensely benefited with this new technology as conventional vaccine technologies such as injection vaccines are labour and cost intensive. While salmon, trout and sea-bass farmers can justify the cost of injection vaccines, it is impractical for high volume, low-value sea food farmers such as tilapia, carp, cat-fish and shrimp which account for 80% of the sea food farmed globally.

Industrial benefits

As fish farming continues to expand and intensify, the frequency and severity of disease outbreaks will increase if effective control measures such as vaccination are not in place. Disease can be catastrophic for the industry viability as high mortality rates ultimately lead to severe financial losses, site closures and redundancies.

This is currently causing approximately $10bn losses in aquaculture.

Developing an oral antigen delivery technology would address many of the problems associated with IP injection with the potential to:

• Decrease the costs of fish vaccination,

• Expand the window for vaccination,

• Reduce losses associated with side effects and/or opportunistic infections, and as a result.

• Improve animal welfare.

The current technology is still at validation stage. However, it is very clear that success of this project will help aquaculture farmers in several ways:

• Reduced labour cost for vaccine administration

• Reduced use of expensive antibiotics

• Vaccine formulated in feed, so easy handling and dosage of vaccine

• Micro-algae are natural source of feed for many fishes, which makes it a palatable vaccine

• Maintain water quality (excessive antibiotic usage reduces water quality), which reduces the risk of outburst of diseases.

• Reduce the risk of new antibiotic resistant diseases

• Increase profitability due to reduced mortality rate and increased yields of high-quality fish.

Thanks to major advances in algal genomics and molecular biology, microalgae can be engineered to express inexpensive therapeutic proteins and vaccines of economic value. The cost of the synthetic biology tools has dropped, allowing effective vaccines that are much more affordable and user-friendly.

On January 21st and 22nd, the regional two-day Bavarian cross-visit event from POWER4BIO was the occasion for a joint bioeconomy forum, workshop and field trip with ENABLING, bringing together about 80 stakeholders from different fields of the bio-based sectors and related policies.

The ENABLING BBP project, aims, activities and its online instruments (Best Practice Atlas, Coaching Activities, Brokerage platform) were presented in the premises of the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs.

At the Centre of Excellence for Renewable Resources in Straubing a meet-up of mid-sized bio-based sector, start-ups and policy stakeholders took place and ended with a Centre tour as well as a field visit to the demonstration plant at Clariant. Especially the newly developed brokerage platform www.biomass-trade.eu was of great interest to the stakeholders and presented during the day with additional promotional material.

Bio cosmetic products I – The business model

A Norwegian company started extracting chitosan from shrimp shells in Northern Norway in the late 1990s. The success of this practice is driven by good business opportunities to extract and commercialize a high-value compound from marine resources.

The innovative aspect of the process is a better use of fishing residues, from previous dumping of shrimp shells into the ocean, to extracting, isolating, and utilizing a high-value component (chitosan) in high-value products (pharmaceuticals and personal care products).

Fishermen bring the shrimps to shore where the fish processing industries are located. Shrimp shells coming from the two largest processing facilities in Norway are then shipped and processed by Chitinor AS. The company in charge of picking up and shipping the shrimp shells to Chitinor premises, is chosen upon agreements with the processing industry, depending on the volumes and available logistics options.

In this practice the economic benefit goes mostly to the processing company that provides Nordic marine biomass to chitin extractors. Most of their products are MSC approved. The MSC stamp guarantees that the product comes from sustainable sources. (MSC stands for Marine Stewardship Council: www.MSC.org).

Bio cosmetic products II – The products

Chitin, the structural scaffold polymer of protective shrimp shells is extracted by Chitinor AS and converted into the high-performing biopolymer chitosan. The extraction and conversion process include de-mineralization, de-proteinization and de-acetylation of the shells. Minerals and proteins are removed from the shrimp shells during the extraction step. The conversion from chitin into chitosan takes place through a treatment with balanced concentration of inorganic solvents and controlled temperature. The so-called deacetylation step results in chitosan that subsequently gets washed with pure fresh water. The process takes approximately 3 days and produce chitosan that is used in pharmaceuticals and skin/hair care products.

The increased value of the shrimp shells contributes to improve the economy of the shrimp processing industry, given the ability to provide a broad range of natural sources of chitin. However, in order to guarantee a defined and reproducible chemical grade of the finished products, only one species is processed for the extraction of high-quality chitosan. This is the case when chitosan is extracted exclusively from the shell of the cold-water shrimp Pandalus borealis.

Ample availability of this species in cold Northern ocean waters provide a secure bioresource for the activity.

As chitosan is a natural polysaccharide it is also biodegradable. Hydamer personal care products produced by showed more than 70 % biodegradability in the BODIS-Test (ISO 10634).

Bioska is a line of 100% degradable bioplastic products that are certified according to the European EN 13432 standard.

The practice offers an alternative to fossil-based plastics and uses residues from agro- and wood-processes.

The Bioska products are made from cellulose and lignin from wood grown in Finland. In addition, potatoes and other vegetables that are not suitable for the food market, can be streamed as bioresources to this process. The main biobased products derived from this practice include, but are not limited to, biowaste bags and sacks, food sample bags, transparent biodegradable packaging films, and others.

Farmers and other companies sell the biomass directly to the processing company, which takes care of collecting and carrying the material in their own facilities.

Farmers are responding positively to this business model. In fact, the price offered by the company for these residues is higher than what farmers saved in feed costs when addressing the same biomass as animal feed.

The innovation is well-established and the products are commercially available.

The business model is triggering multiple benefits in the Region, with farmers having the opportunity to enter a new market and being part of an additional value chain. It contributes to solve biomass waste problems, and it supports an environmentally-friendly approach, replacing fossil-fuel sources in the production of day-to-day products.

Bokashi I, The collaboration

Mario, a FruitGrower and Raf, a gardener, teamed up to create Bokashi, a biobased organic material suitable for different soil applications, including in orchards and gardens.

Mario has been constantly looking for a solution to create value from residual flows generated by rotting unsold apples and pears. Due to the fact that spreading this fruit in the orchard causes soil acidification, the unsold apples and pears are currently being sold to a local farmer and used as animal feed and/or plowed in the field. However, only a portion of this fruit can be used for these applications, and Mario, as many others fruit growers, is faced with the problem of getting rid of these residues.

From its activity of gardening, each day Raf generates huge amounts of green waste, paying an average of € 50 per ton to dispose them in the container park.

Mario and Raf started their collaboration making Bokashi from unsold apples and pears, and from the green waste of garden maintenance. It is a product that can be used by both companies as a soil and plant improver in orchards and gardens, as well as sold to external users.

Mario found a solution to his waste and is not ‘vulnerable’ to the uncertainties of external customers. He does not have to pay for the processing of his waste and can create a better yield using Bokashi on his own orchards.

Raf has a solution for his green waste as a gardener (loses the cost of €50/ton green waste). On top of that, he can use the bokashi on the gardens of his customers.

The partnership required some initial investment for the Innovation campaign (€2500 + communication) and the support of Innovatiesteunpunt, an extension service organisation operating in the Flemish region.

Bokashi II, The process

During an info evening organized by Agriton (Belgium), Raf learned about the "Bokashi" method as an alternative to the conventional process to compost green waste of its gardening activity.

In the conventional practice, the temperature rises to 70°C, then drops again to 40°C. The "combustion process" releases CO2 and the amount of mass is reduced to 40%.

The Bokashi method (from the Japanese word that refers to “fermented organic matter”), is a good alternative (or a supplement) to compost. In the process, organic matter is stored airtight and digested by effective micro-organism during fermentation, contributing to form additional metabolic products.

This preservation technique detains the energy in the product and creates a compound with higher nutritional value than non-fermented organic substances (such as sauerkraut).

Bokashi is obtained by adding 10 kg of sea shell lime, 10 kg of clay minerals, 10 kg of volcanic rock and effective microorganisms to 1m³ of grinded green waste.

The process does not include burning phases and is done in an oxygen-free room that will raise the temperature to max. 40 ° C, and quickly drops back to 20°C. After 8 weeks, the result is a good fermented product with 95% preservation of mass. Adding Bokashi to the soil means adding organic matter and microbial life, which enhances plant growth resistance to plant diseases.

Bokashi III, The application

In this practice, Bokashi is a fermented organic matter obtained by the combination of rotting apple and pears and green waste from gardening operations.

When integrated in the soil, the fermented compound increases the microbial diversity and provides plants with bio-active nutrients, such as vitamins and organic acids. The application of Bokashi in the soil provides essential energy and a great resistance to harmful bacteria and fungi. In fact, the Effective Micro-organisms (EM) present in the soil, multiply and can dominate the harmful bacteria, fungi and viruses. In addition, the neutral micro-organisms that will first choose the predominant harmful micro-organisms in a pathogenic soil, will now join the Effective Micro-organisms of EM, promoting a sustainable natural balance.

Almost all organic matter is suitable for making Bokashi and it can be done at a very low cost.

In this practice the main actors (a fruit grower and a gardener) produce Bokashi in big bags rather than following the conventional production in heaps. This procedure makes the compound more practical to store and more convenient to move and apply in small areas such as orchards and gardens. However, the big bags are not airtight and require a plastic inner bag that is sealed after filling.

Bokashi can be used anywhere in the garden. Plants benefit from including extra nutrients, enriching humus and soil structure. For example, the fermented material is suitable to maintain the lawn (3 kg / m²), or as a litter in the borders or between the stems of hedges (1-3cm thick). The pH of bokashi is rather low and you may need a few days after the treatment before sowing or planting. In this way, the acids are neutralized and the soil is ready to hosting new cultures.

“A&A Fratelli Parodi S.p.a.” is specialized in the production and refining of vegetable oils, esters, waxes and butters, vegetable-based products that are used in the cosmetic and industrial sectors (lubricant, metal-working fluids, plasticizers, natural solvents). In addition, the company has activated a line dedicated to the biomass production from microalgae. To this end, the company collaborates with “Archimede Ricerche Srl”, member of EABA (European Algae Biomass Association), the first Italian enterprise entirely dedicated to the production and marketing of microalgae.

The process generates high quality biomass (up to 10 t/year) of different species of algae such as Nannochloropsis, Isochrysis, Tetraselmis and Chaetoceros.

The business model retains a great economic potential, in fact, these autotrophic microorganisms constitute a promising source of high added value raw materials, with employment in the cosmetic, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical sectors. Parodi S.p.a. has developed not only an industrial photo-bioreactors system (in collaboration with Archimede Ricerche and the University of Florence), but also an integrated and sustainable process: energy comes partly from sunlight, thanks to the algae photosynthetic function, and partly from the heat of an endothermic co-generative station, powered by vegetable oil (e.g. oil track sustainable soy, rapeseed oil).

The participation in European Research and Innovation projects such as “SaltGae” and “Biofat” have contributed to the realization of this Research, while encouraging the development of the current industrial plant.

EDIZERO produces highly efficient technical materials for green building, starting from the use of a multiplicity of agricultural and zootechnical residues (wool, cork, hemp, straw, rennet, etc). Thanks to a strong synergy between the agricultural and the industrial sector, EDIZERO brings an excellent example of short supply chain in the regional bioeconomy (most of the the biobased raw materials used are produced in Sardinia) and of maximum energy savings and environmental respect (all the material is processed without hot fixing and without thermo-ties). Recycling residual biomass is actually an advantage for both the agricultural sector and farmers, who avoid the cost of disposing of agriculture residuals, and for the industrial sector, that avoids the purchase of expensive and polluting raw materials. EDIZERO has activated several production lines that transform around 120 different residues materials into various biomaterials with a high degree of efficiency and sustainability. In particular:

•        EDILANA: transforms craps of wool, cork and hemp into materials for bio-building such as: renovation, acoustic and thermal insulation, historic architectural restoration and eco-design for internal and external design.

•        GEOLANA and ORTOLANA: transform raw materials from sheep’s wool and plant derivatives into materials for: environmental remediation, depollution, environmental engineering (containment, restoration, re-naturalization of landfills), agro-technics (soil protection and regeneration).

•        EDILATTE: produces building materials such as skimming, sanitizing, anti-spasm and water repellent paints obtained from agrifood processing waste (fruit, vegetables, beer, wine, vinegar, olive oil, milk, etc.)

All bioproducts have Environmental Ethics Certification.

The motto of the company is to transform the waste into raw materials and the surplus of productions into technological excellence. To reach this goal, the company has undertaken years of research and experimentation activities for technological innovation. The productive chain activated by EDIZERO - due to the positive effects on the territory in environmental and social terms - constitutes a valid model to be replicated