EFFICIENT AND NOVEL WASTE STREAMS CO-PROCESSING TO OBTAIN BIO-BASED SOLUTIONS FOR PACKAGING AND AGRICULTURAL SECTORS

ELLIPSE project will address the valorisation of two heterogeneous waste streams generated in significant amounts in Europe, slaughterhouse waste (bellygrass) and paper and pulp sludge, to produce cost-efficient PHAs for agricultural and packaging sectors, by the co-processing with other organic waste streams such as glycerol from the biodiesel industry and sludge from the dairy industry. The integration of these waste streams as biorefinery feedstocks will allow reducing the volumes of waste destined to landfill or anaerobic digestion, opening new avenues for platform chemicals and bioplastics production while creating additional revenue for the related industries generating the waste, with added advantages of water recycling, decreased soil degradation, groundwater pollution and methane emissions.

The selected ELLIPSE feedstocks are locally available and renewable leading to close to 100% renewably sourced personal care packaging and agricultural products. ELLIPSE project will be able to cope with at least 100 tonnes of slaughterhouse waste and 20 tons of wastewater sludge derived from pulp and paper industry. The ELLIPSE technology will impact in the European bioeconomy by valorising 20,000 tons of rumen content waste and 50,000 tons of paper sludge per year.

ELLIPSE has a multi-actor approach including all the relevant actors in the bio-based system from the waste stream production and management (GG and HEPA) to technology developers (AIMPLAS, UNIVR, CARTIF, BEST) and industrial actors, both SMEs (BIOT, BIOMI, ZER0-E, HP) and bigger companies (BBEPP, NVMT), plus the expertise of ENCO for the market development perspective. ZER0-E will contribute with the end-user and consumer’s perspective so that all inputs from the relevant actors are taken into account.