Demonstrating more efficient enzyme production to increase biogas yields
Summary
A recently developed enzyme has the potential to increase biogas yield by 10% or more. However, the current fermentation process does not yield enough to make it cost effective for industrial deployment.
The DEMETER project wants to increase this yield by at least 20%, making it far more cost effective and more easily available for widespread use. The project will improve and scale-up fermentation to improve protein yields while retaining quality using a number of techniques.
It will improve downstream processing of the fermentation broth, reducing costs by at least 15% and demonstrate industrial and economic the feasibility of the entire project using a 15,000 litre pilot plant. It will also develop a model that can predictive how adding the enzyme will impact biogas yield.
Description
- To demonstrate a yield increase and cost reduction of the C1-LC4 enzyme production process as well as its positive effect on biogas production in Europe.
- To improve and scale-up the C1-LC4-producing fermentation process to yield at least 20% more protein while retaining quality.
- To improve downstream processing of the fermentation broth leading to a cost reduction of at least 15%.
- To demonstrate the improved production process in a 15 000 L pilot plant
- To demonstrate the industrial and economic feasibility to apply a cost-effective C1-LC4 enzyme product in biogas plants.
- To develop a predictive model of the effect of enzyme addition on the biogas yield of a given fermentation process.
- To analyse the impact of the developed processes and products on environment and economy.
- Higher process yields of at least 20% compared to the state of the art
- Cost reduction of at least 15% compared to conventional down-stream processing of the fermentation broth
- Increasing the overall productivity leading to more economically feasible processes, to be proven at demonstration scale
- Contributing to realising the objectives of Key Enabling Biotechnology under Horizon 2020 and dedicated EU policy