ELLIPSE

Sustainability is a key pillar to develop and maintain global strategies such as the EU Bioeconomy Strategy (2018), the European Green Deal objectives and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These strategies are aligned with the efficient use of natural resources and the valorisation and management of the increasing volume generated of waste. In this regard, the transition from a linear to a circular economy including resource recovery, reuse and recycling is essential.

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.

ZER0-E will lead the ELLIPSE impact assessment, regulatory & social considerations. This WP will address the feasibility of the ELLIPSE sustainable processes  and provide a range of impact studies to assess their effectiveness by examining economic, environmental, and social factors. LCA methodologies will be based on available standards, certification and validated approaches.

Also, ZER0-E will develop the implementation of a web platform and end-user tool to show and analyse critical data sent by the technical partners, to optimise the production of biobased PHA in a sustainable way for different applications.