Seventh EcoPlastiC Steering Meeting

The seventh online EcoPlastiC Steering Meeting (SM) took place on 29 November 2024 where the partners highlighted the latest updates and presented plans for 2025.

Within WP4, NOVA is working on scaling up the process of PHA production to 10 L and after that AVE will scale up to 50 L. The microbiome developed in the BioICEP project was selected for the scale up process due to its TPA removal efficiency, high volumetric productivity and good PHA content. The optimisation of PHA recovery included several strategies. When supercritical carbon-dioxide (sc-CO2) was employed (NOVA), pre-treatment and extraction showed improved cell rupture and PHA recovery. Films made from this biomass exhibited flexibility and cohesiveness, which is a step forward for packaging applications. Enzymatic treatments were assessed at IMGGE, where a successful extraction of PHB (60% biomass) and mcl-PHA (20% biomass) was observed. Astonishing 100 % recovery of PHB was achieved and about 50% of mcl-PHA recovery. Within the task on biopolymer characterization and processing (NOVA), the film forming capacity of PHA-rich biomass was tested. These films were tested under varying temperature and pressure conditions. It was shown that temperatures below 130°C produced optimal results, preventing brittleness. Additionally, glycerol addition improved flexibility and reduced brittleness.

Within WP5, TUS is scaling up the YB423 sample biomass, currently, the process achieved 4.45 g/L of freeze-dried biomass. The next step will involve transitioning to a bioreactor with sufficient oxygen supply and after that the crude protein content in single-cell protein and biomass will be determined. Additionally, compression tests were conducted to produce PHA films using commercialized PHA pellets and compared them with the pure PHB-HV samples by NOVA, focusing on properties such as barrier performance, tensile strength and other mechanical characteristics. KTH are working on publications of the WP5 results concerning ecoplastic films.

Within WP6, IMGGE is preparing the EcoPlastiC Newsletter #3 for December 2024. You can read the previous issues here and subscribe to our mailing list at this link. A new EcoPlastiC promotional video was prepared and will be included in the Newsletter #3. The Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) have improved between year 1 and year 2 of the project and the numbers keep going up in year 3.

Representatives from all partner institutions attended the SM:

TUS (Ireland) - Marija Mojicevic, Laura Rodriguez Barroso, Bor Shin Chee, Cuneyt Erdinct Tas, Buket Alkan Tas, Necdet Ozcelik, Eduardo Lanzagorta Garcia

AVE (Belgium) – Kim Windey

NOVA (Portugal) – Filomena Freitas (Team Leader), Patricia Concordio dos Reis, Maria Nicolau Batista

IMGGE (Serbia) – Jasmina Nikodinovic-Runic (Team Leader), Jelena Simic, Marijana Ponjavic

KTH (Sweden) - Mikael Hedenqvist (Team Leader), Kiran Reddy Baddigam, Anna Svagen Hanner

Regular EcoPlastiC SMs are organised each 2 months, to make sure this project moves forward according to plans.