The BioLaMer project seeks to address two significant global challenges, such as the increasing food waste challenge and petroleum plastics pollution, by developing an innovative technology/design/route to produce biopolymers and added-value bioplastic products from low-grade food waste. To realize this goal, BioLaMer will demonstrate a novel proof of principle fly larvae biorefinery by establishing food eating black soldier fly larvae (Hermetia illucens) as a high impact feedstock for cost-effective production of two biopolymers, polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) and chitosan. The advantages of the larvae route are that it: i) is renewable and inexpensive; ii) provides less complexity as the larvae has invariable chemical composition; iii) can be used to mitigate the FW problem; iv) can reduce raw material inputs, thus minimizing energy utilization; v) doesn’t disturb the biodiversity; and vi) can avoid/reduce pre-treatment costs associated with the waste-streams to produce the platform chemicals for biopolymer production.
The innovative BioLaMer biorefinery will improve the bioreactor process efficiency and cut down the PHA production cost significantly compared to existing technologies. BioLaMer will combine its conceptual innovations, complementary interdisciplinary expertise and bioreactor process expertise to develop cost-effective PHA and chitosan production technologies, supported by life cycle thinking/analysis and hybrid models developed using machine learning platform. Further, the significant environmental, economic, and societal impacts (that supports the EU Circular Economy, Green Deal, Food Waste, and Plastic strategies/initiatives) of
BioLaMer will be demonstrated through the involvement of scientific stakeholders, communication and circularity demonstration partners.
This project is supported and funded by the European Innovation Council (EIC) through its EIC Pathfinder Open funding, established under the EU Horizon Europe programme.