The four proposal granted, all of them submitted by women, raise a total of more than 600,000 euros funded by the State Research Agency (AEI), within the program "Strategic projects aimed at the ecological transition and the digital transition". The 2-year projects will also allow the recruitment of research staff.
Three of them are aimed at developing waste recovery processes through the application of new recycling strategies (PETzyme) and to obtain high added value products (POLYGO1, ODDITY). The ALISE project, on the other hand, will develop a decision support methodology that integrates the assessment of ecosystem services (ES) with the cause-effect chain approach of the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method as a crucial tool for environmental sustainability.
The PETzyme project is a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research proposal coordinated by Dr. Gemma Eibes (Biogroup, CRETUS) and Prof. José Martínez Costas (Molecular Biology, CIQUS). Both disciplines are necessary to tackling the big challenge of developing an enzymatic technology for the recycling of PET wastes to tackle the problematic accumulation of these materials in landfills deposited without recycling or disposal. This technology is based on the combined use of two highly thermostable enzymes that will act synergistically.
The POLYGO1 project, coordinated by Prof. Ángeles Val (Biogroup, CRETUS), aims to validate at a pilot-scale a bioprocess for the recovery of FOG (fat, oil and grease) wastes to produce biopolymers (polyhydroxyalkanoates, PHAs) that are expected to be used as a substitute for conventional petroleum-based plastics. Bioplastics can be a substitute product for traditional plastics and are also biodegradable. To achieve this, first, it will be determined the optimal operating conditions of the technology used to accumulate only PHAs from these wastes. Subsequently, this technology will be validated on a pilot scale in a fishc-canning industry. Once enough biopolymers were extracted, it will be determined their properties and finally the technology will be transferred to potential PHAs end users.
The ODDITY project, led by Prof. Marta Carballa (Biogroup, CRETUS) addresses the challenge of the selective valorisation of organic wastes from different industries into odd-chain Volatile Fatty Acids (VFA), which can be processed as chemicals, biopolymers or biofuels. This project presents a multidisciplinary approach by integrating technical, microbiological and environmental aspects and also incorporates a mathematical modelling part by Prof. Miguel Mauricio (Biogroup, CRETUS).
In the ALISE project presented by Prof. Sara Gonzalez (Biogroup, CRETUS), a methodology will be developed to analyse: (i) the safety, quality and sustainable production of basic Mediterranean foods such as cereals and legumes promoting a circular economy with novel biotechnological strategies for the valorisation of agri-food biomass into high added value bioproducts and minimise the effects of climate change derived from the agri-food system; (ii) to promote the production, provision and safe consumption of alternative sources of plant-based proteins; (iii) to mitigate the loss of biodiversity, resources and ecosystem services derived from an unsustainable agri-food system.
