FermoChar: Fermentation residue into engineered char-based materials for sustainable industrial applications; A pathway to NetZero

FermoChar：将发酵残渣转化为工程炭基材料，用于可持续工业应用；

• 批准号: 10075795
• 金额: $ 79.97万
• 依托单位: TEESSIDE UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Collaborative R&D
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=10075795
• 关键词: FermoChar; Fermentation; residue; into; engineered

Fermentation is a major upstream process in many food, feed, beverages, biopharmaceutical and biotechnological industries. It is a metabolic process where microorganisms are responsible for chemical reactions to convert certain carbohydrates into various products. The choice of the product is usually based on the type of the microorganism used and the fermentation method.Upon the completion of the process, the broth is centrifuged to form supernatant, where the targeted products are usually dissolved, and residual solid waste that is composed of the cells, remaining feedstock and other metabolites. These residual solids are usually incinerated/landfilled or utilised by some industries to produce fertilisers and animal feed (not considered as process revenue). The separated liquid supernatant is subjected to downstream processing to extract and purify the targeted product. The downstream process is considered immensely costly and energy incentive stage as it consists of several steps of purification and utilise various materials. Adsorbents, such as char, are commonly used in these downstream process steps for purification and/ clarification of the products.This project is designed to provide an innovative and sustainable solution for a variety of biopharmaceutical and biotechnological industries. The residual waste from the fermentation process will be valorised into engineered value-added adsorbents that could be utilised in the downstream process or considered as process revenue. The properties of the developed adsorbents will mainly depend on the feedstock used and the type of cells. The project consists of two industrial partners from different fields including pharmaceutical and bioplastics that are utilising different feedstock and microorganisms and hence the produced bio-solids and resulting adsorbent material will vary. Modification of the produced materials will be investigated for the development of novel tailored adsorbents to be used in different downstream processes based on the targeted application of the industrial partner.

发酵是许多食品、饲料、饮料、生物制药和生物技术行业的主要上游过程。这是一个代谢过程，微生物负责化学反应，将某些碳水化合物转化为各种产品。产品的选择通常基于所用微生物的类型和发酵方法。该过程完成后，将发酵液离心以形成上清液，目标产品通常溶解在上清液中，而残留的固体废物则由细胞、剩余原料和其他代谢物。这些残留固体通常被焚烧/填埋或被某些行业用来生产肥料和动物饲料（不视为加工收入）。分离出的上清液经过下游处理，提取并纯化目标产物。下游工艺被认为是极其昂贵和能源激励阶段，因为它由几个纯化步骤组成并利用各种材料。吸附剂（例如炭）通常用于这些下游工艺步骤，以净化和/澄清产品。该项目旨在为各种生物制药和生物技术行业提供创新且可持续的解决方案。发酵过程中的残留废物将被转化为工程增值吸附剂，可用于下游工艺或视为工艺收入。所开发的吸附剂的特性主要取决于所使用的原料和细胞类型。该项目由来自制药和生物塑料等不同领域的两个工业合作伙伴组成，他们使用不同的原料和微生物，因此生产的生物固体和所得吸附材料会有所不同。将研究对所生产的材料进行改性，以开发新型定制吸附剂，以根据工业合作伙伴的目标应用用于不同的下游工艺。