From LIFECAB to LIFE-EBP: bio-based products are the goal

The final meeting of the LIFECAB project took place on June 21st, thus bringing the project to its end.

LIFECAB is a LIFE project: HYSYTECH has devepoled and produced a technology that allows the recovery of soluble biological substances (SBOs), thanks to the chemical hydrolysis of the compost. SBOs are effective as chemical auxiliaries for various applications.

In LIFECAB, SBOs are used as auxiliar feeding in the anaerobic digestion process to reduce ammonia (NH3) content in the digestate. The effect was confirmed thanks to test campaigns performed on industrial digesters that validated the ability of SBOs to promote the oxidation of ammonia to N2.

In addition, providing an important environmental contribution by giving greater added value to the compost, this process also reduces the cost necessary for reducing the NH3 content in the digestate, with the important effect of replacing part of the chemical reagents with a renewable one.

The LIFECAB project has allowed the development of knowledge that will be transferred and amplified in the LIFE-EBP project, started a few months ago with the ambitious target of producing biopolymers for various applications.

LIFE-EBP

The first monitoring visit of the LIFE-EBP project took place on June 23rd and 24th; progresses made during this period have been presented by all partners.

LIFE-EBP is a LIFE project focused on the valorisation of municipal biowastes (MBW) as feedstock to produce new biobased products (Bps) for agriculture and the chemical industry applications.

The project will develop a mobile prototype to process the necessary MBW for the validation in real operating conditions; it will take place in four different countries (Italy, Spain, Greece, Cyprus).

The LIFE-EBP product will be validated in different applications, such as soil fertilizers, plant biostimulants \ anti-pathogen agents, biopolymers to make plastics, surfactants to make detergents.

Based on the results achieved, the project team intends to establish join ventures among stakeholders in the sector of waste management, agriculture and chemical industry, to promote the industrialization of the BPs and their use in all EU countries.