A data-enabled circular economy solution for Canadian Agri-food producers

几十年来，线性（获取-制造-处理）经济一直是常态。社会和企业现在都认识到，这样的体系无论在经济上还是在环境上都是不可持续的。一个新的概念，“循环经济”，提供了一种新的和创新的方法，它重新设想我们如何利用我们的资源，把副产品和废物视为宝贵的资源和经济机会，而不是成本。农业食品部门的废物量是巨大的。加拿大已经是世界上最大的豆类种植和出口国之一，如豌豆、小扁豆、鹰嘴豆和豆类，有超过1200万英亩的土地用于种植这些作物，但30%进入生产设施的豆类作物最终以粮食损失告终。随着消费者对肉类替代品的需求增加，包括在加拿大和其他地方，加拿大农业食品生产商将迫切需要找到目前没有应用的淀粉流的用途。北阿尔伯塔理工学院（NAIT）的研究人员和学生将与农业食品生产商、生物技术公司和生物燃料生产商的完整商业价值链合作，将生物化学、分析化学、微生物学、烹饪艺术、数据可视化和数据分析的专业知识结合起来，正面应对这一挑战。该团队将确定哪种类型的废物最适合为公司合作伙伴开发更高价值的化学品、食品成分或生物燃料产品。数据分析和生命周期分析也将使公司能够在最有效的商业化道路上做出明智的商业决策。通过将目前按成本填埋的材料转化为产品，该项目将支持公司收入来源的多样化，并提供一种改善环境可持续性的方法。在农业食品部门实施这一解决方案的目的是建立一个新的原料供应链，以减轻环境负担，并为加拿大人带来几代人的经济和环境效益。重新设想工业农业废弃物作为增值产品开发的起点，将使加拿大经济回到长期可持续发展的道路上。

For decades, a linear (take-make-dispose) economy has been the norm. Society and businesses now recognize that such a system is unsustainable, both economically nor environmentally. A new concept, the "circular economy", offers a new and innovative approach - one that reimagines how we utilize our resources, thinking about by-products and wastes as valuable resources and an economic opportunity instead of a cost.Waste volumes from the agri-food sector are immense. Canada is already one of the World's largest growers and exporters of pulses such as peas, lentils, chickpeas, and beans, with over 12 million acres devoted to such crops, but 30% of the pulse crops that enter manufacturing facilities end up as food loss. As demand for plant-based protein increases from consumers interested in seeking meat alternatives, including in Canada and elsewhere, Canadian agri-food producers will need to urgently find uses for the starch streams for which they currently do not have applications.Working together with the complete business value chain of agri-food producers, biotechnology companies, and biofuel producers, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) researchers and students will combine the expertise of biochemistry, analytical chemistry, microbiology, culinary arts, data visualization, and data analytics to address this challenge head on.The team will determine which type of waste is best suited to developing higher value chemicals, food ingredients, or biofuel products for the company partners. Data analytics and life cycle analyses will also allow the companies to make informed business decisions on the commercialization path that would be most effective. By turning what are presently materials landfilled at cost into products, the project will support diversification of company revenue streams and provide a means by which they can improve their environmental sustainability.The implementation of this solution in the agri-food sector is designed to establish a new feedstock supply chain to relieve environmental burden and deliver multi-generational economic and environmental benefits to Canadians. Re-imagining industrial agricultural wastes as the starting point for value-added product development will put Canada's economy back onto a path of long-term sustainability.