Celebrating the First Anniversary of ELLIPSE

The ELLIPSE project celebrated on Wednesday 8th May a significant milestone with its 12-months meeting held at Biocant Park in Cantanhede, Portugal.

ELLIPSE Project address the valorisation of two heterogeneous waste streams generated in significant amounts in Europe to produce cost-efficient polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) for agricultural and personal care applications, by the coprocessing with other organic wastes (OW) such as sludge from the dairy industry and glycerol from the biodiesel industry, as well as recovering nutrients to produce bio-based fertilizers (BBFs). The integration of these waste streams as biorefinery feedstocks will allow reducing the volumes of landfilled waste, opening new avenues for platform chemicals and bioplastics production while creating additional revenue for the related industries generating them, with added advantages of water recycling, decreased soil degradation, groundwater pollution and methane emissions.

Heterogeneous organic wastes are challenging waste streams due to the presence of certain impurities or a mix of them that may interfere in the processes involved in their valorisation, which promotes incineration and biogas production as the most widespread ends of life (EoL), apart from landfilling. It is the case of paper sludge, especially from the recycling paper process, and slaughterhouse waste, specifically digestive tract content (also known as bellygrass). Both are target in the ELLIPSE project because:

their complex composition conditions and their current EoL (low add-value);
their potential to be converted into PHAs1,2 (carbon-source);
they are available as they are generated in significant amounts3,4,5 all around Europe and they are not seasonal.

During the first-year assembly, held in Cantanhede, Portugal, hosted by Biotrend at the BIOCANT Park, participants reviewed the activities carried out over the past year. Parallel sessions were organized to define the next steps in advancing the ELLIPSE mission. The meeting also involved a visit to the laboratories at BIOCANT Park.

The ELLIPSE project is co-funded by the European Union under the Circular Bio-based Joint Undertaking (CBE JU) call HORIZON-JU-CBE-2022-IA-04. For its deployment it has been allocated 5,509,655.50€ over a 48-months period.

The Consortium Is Composed Of 13 Parters: The coordinator Asociacion De Investigacion De Materiales Plasticos Y Conexas (Aimplas), Bio Base Europe Pilot Plant Vzw (Bbepp), Biotrend-Inovacao E Engenharia Em Biotecnologia Sa (Biot), Novamont Spa, Bio-Mi Drustvo S Ogranicenom Odgovornoscu Za Proizvodnju, Fundacion Cartif, Zero Emissions Engineering Bv, University Of Verona, Helian Polymers B.V, Enco Srl, Best – Bioenergy And Sustainable Technologies Gmbh, Green Generation Ireland Limited, Laakirchen Papier Ag.