Mining and minding food waste through carboxylate value-added platform

通过羧酸盐增值平台挖掘和管理食物垃圾

• 批准号: RGPIN-2021-03628
• 负责人: Kaur, Guneet
• 金额: $ 1.89万
• 依托单位: York University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2021-01-01 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=742647
• 关键词: Mining; minding; food; waste; through

Globally, food wastes constitute about 30-50% of the municipal solid waste while landfilling remains the main waste treatment technology. In Ontario, a staggering amount of 3.7 M tonnes/year of food and organic waste is generated and about 60% of food waste ends up in landfills. From the circular economy perspective, landfilling of food waste is not a sustainable option in view of greenhouse gases emission and breakdown of nutrient cycling. These factors along with Canada's commitment to Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030 and promote environmental protection, food security, and material and energy efficiency are the key drivers for valorization of food waste. The goal of this program is to create innovative and advanced food waste valorization processes beyond the conventional anaerobic digestion process to build a low carbon and economically efficient circular biobased economy in Canada. This will be achieved through the bioconversion of food waste to carboxylates which are high-value building blocks for the synthesis of a myriad currently fossil-fuel derived products such as polymers (plastics), alcohols (e.g. butanol as biofuel), ketones and olefins. This research program will promote the development of an effective high-value resource recovery system from food waste based on acidogenic mixed culture fermentation incorporating process design and optimization, microbial community engineering, process intensification via coupled upstream-downstream system, and multi-product value-chain including short- and medium-chain fatty acids (SCFA, MCFA), bioplastics and liquid biofuel precursors. Specifically, the program has four primary objectives: (i)Develop innovative bioreactor configurations and operating strategies for enhanced carboxylate production with focus on fed-batch and continuous design systems, high loading conditions and impact of acidogenic gas pressure and composition. (ii)Investigation of microbial community structure and function dynamics to (a) identify specific microbial groups enriched under specific process conditions and produce enhanced and/or desired carboxylates and (b) develop efficient bioaugmentation systems for specific carboxylate synthesis. (iii)Develop coupled fermentation-extraction i.e. in-situ product recovery (ISPR) systems to extract carboxylate from acidogenic fermenter and back extraction protocols for simultaneous alleviation of carboxylate inhibition and their high recovery. (iv) Establish the methods for deriving secondary higher-value products such as MCFA and bioplastics from carboxylates through biotransformation techniques. The program will provide highly qualified personnel (HQP) with modern skill sets and competencies in emerging areas of waste treatment, biorefinery, microbial ecology for engineered systems, and applications of recovered bioproducts. Such skilled HQPs would foster the development of these clean technologies across Canada and around the world.

在全球范围内，食物垃圾约占城市固体废物的30%-50%，而填埋仍然是主要的垃圾处理技术。在安大略省，每年产生的食物和有机垃圾数量高达370万吨，其中约60%的食物垃圾最终被送往垃圾填埋场。从循环经济的角度来看，从温室气体排放和养分循环崩溃的角度来看，将食物垃圾填埋不是一个可持续的选择。这些因素，以及加拿大对可持续发展目标12.3的承诺，即到2030年将食物垃圾减少50%，并促进环境保护、食物安全以及材料和能源效率，是食物垃圾价格化的关键驱动因素。该计划的目标是在传统的厌氧消化工艺基础上创造创新和先进的食物垃圾有价化工艺，以在加拿大建立低碳和经济高效的循环生物基经济。这将通过将食物垃圾生物转化为羧酸盐来实现，这些羧酸盐是合成各种目前由化石燃料衍生的产品的高价值构件，如聚合物(塑料)、醇(例如，丁醇作为生物燃料)、酮和烯烃。这一研究计划将促进以产酸混合发酵为基础的高效高价值餐厨垃圾资源化体系的发展，该体系包括工艺设计和优化、微生物群落工程、通过上下游耦合系统进行工艺强化以及包括短链和中链脂肪酸(SCFA、MCFA)、生物塑料和液体生物燃料前体在内的多产品价值链。具体地说，该计划有四个主要目标：(I)开发创新的生物反应器配置和操作策略，以提高羧酸盐的生产，重点是进料分批和连续设计系统、高负荷条件以及产酸气体压力和成分的影响。(2)调查微生物群落结构和功能动态，以(A)确定在特定工艺条件下浓缩的特定微生物组，并产生强化的和/或所需的羧酸盐，以及(B)为特定的羧酸盐合成开发有效的生物强化系统。(Iii)开发发酵-萃取耦合系统，即原位产物回收(ISPR)系统，从产酸发酵罐中提取羧酸盐，并开发反萃取方案，以同时缓解羧酸盐的抑制作用，并提高其回收率。(4)确定通过生物转化技术从羧酸盐中提取二次高附加值产品的方法，如MCFA和生物塑料。该计划将为高素质人才(HQP)提供废物处理、生物精炼、工程系统微生物生态和回收生物产品应用等新兴领域的现代技能和能力。这种熟练的HQP将促进这些清洁技术在加拿大和世界各地的发展。