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THE CONTEXT
According to the Urban Waste Report 2019 edition of ISPRA, the volumes of waste to be managed are increasing and, in 2018, have reached half a ton per capita. In total it makes about 30.2 million tons: a number in net growth if we consider that in the last 6 years we had remained below 30 tons. In addition to the tons of municipal waste produced each year, however, the separate collection of waste has also increased, up by about 2.6% compared to 2017.
In a similar context, the valorization of organic waste from separate collection brings great benefits to the territory in terms of environment, employment and as a driver of growth and sustainable development.
THE PROJECT
The multi-disciplinary approach of the REVENUE project - 3-routes platform for REcovery of high Value products, ENergy and bio-fertilizer from Urban biowastE - will generate innovation and development in the management of urban waste in the Lombardy region, guaranteeing respect for human health thanks to the careful assessment of the biological risk of the entire technological chain. The specific challenge is to reduce costs and improve sustainability associated with the pretreatment step of biomass feedstock while making it possible to achieve of sufficiently high yields in the targeted product in the subsequent conversion steps.
The project, started in February 2020 and will last 30 months, is focused on the integration of an innovative pretreatment to promote high added value fatty acids production from the liquid fraction, and biomethane and an hygienized biofertilizer from the solid residue.
The potential economic value that will derive from processing biowaste with the REVENUE platform is to mitigate the disposal costs, to receive revenues from sales of the products, and subsidies for renewable energy.
EXPECTED RESULTS
The project aims to:
- develop a scientific approach to better inform citizens about safety from an environmental and human health point of view;
- implement organic waste treatment technology for a "scalable" market application towards a zero-carbon and bio-based economy;
- assess the bio-risk of the entire proposed supply chain;
- optimise yield and selective composition of short-chain fatty acids by fermentation from pre-treated organic waste extract;
- identify key mechanisms of microbial 'chain elongation' in order to predict and direct the process to produce the target compound;
- proceed to the innovative application of functionalised nanoparticles for adsorption and selective recovery of the target compound.
THE PARTNERSHIP
The REVENUE project partners are 4:
- Politecnico di Milano - Department of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering
- National Research Council - Water Research Institute
- Campus Bio-Medical University of Rome
- Lombardy Energy Cleantech Cluster (LE2C) (subcontractor)
For more information on the project and the activities promoted, visit the dedicated website!
Project supported by:
