FermoChar: Fermentation residue into engineered char-based materials for sustainable industrial applications; A pathway to NetZero

发酵是许多食品、饲料、饮料、生物制药和生物技术行业的主要上游过程。这是一个代谢过程，微生物负责化学反应，将某些碳水化合物转化为各种产品。产品的选择通常基于所用微生物的类型和发酵方法。在过程完成后，将发酵液离心形成上清液，目标产品通常在上面溶解，以及由细胞、剩余原料和其他代谢物组成的残余固体废物。这些残留固体通常被焚烧/填埋或被一些行业用来生产化肥和动物饲料(不被视为加工收入)。将分离后的液体上清液进行下游处理，提取纯化目标产物。下游过程被认为是非常昂贵和能源激励阶段，因为它包括几个步骤的纯化和利用各种材料。在这些下游工艺步骤中，通常使用诸如焦炭之类的吸附剂来提纯和/澄清产品。该项目旨在为各种生物制药和生物技术行业提供一种创新和可持续的解决方案。发酵过程的残余物将被转化为工程增值吸附剂，可用于下游过程或被视为过程收入。所开发的吸附剂的性能将主要取决于所使用的原料和电池的类型。该项目由来自不同领域的两个工业伙伴组成，包括制药和生物塑料，它们使用不同的原料和微生物，因此产生的生物固体和最终的吸附材料将有所不同。将根据工业伙伴的目标应用，对生产的材料进行改性，以开发用于不同下游工艺的新型量身定做的吸附剂。

Fermentation is a major upstream process in many food, feed, beverages, biopharmaceutical and biotechnological industries. It is a metabolic process where microorganisms are responsible for chemical reactions to convert certain carbohydrates into various products. The choice of the product is usually based on the type of the microorganism used and the fermentation method.Upon the completion of the process, the broth is centrifuged to form supernatant, where the targeted products are usually dissolved, and residual solid waste that is composed of the cells, remaining feedstock and other metabolites. These residual solids are usually incinerated/landfilled or utilised by some industries to produce fertilisers and animal feed (not considered as process revenue). The separated liquid supernatant is subjected to downstream processing to extract and purify the targeted product. The downstream process is considered immensely costly and energy incentive stage as it consists of several steps of purification and utilise various materials. Adsorbents, such as char, are commonly used in these downstream process steps for purification and/ clarification of the products.This project is designed to provide an innovative and sustainable solution for a variety of biopharmaceutical and biotechnological industries. The residual waste from the fermentation process will be valorised into engineered value-added adsorbents that could be utilised in the downstream process or considered as process revenue. The properties of the developed adsorbents will mainly depend on the feedstock used and the type of cells. The project consists of two industrial partners from different fields including pharmaceutical and bioplastics that are utilising different feedstock and microorganisms and hence the produced bio-solids and resulting adsorbent material will vary. Modification of the produced materials will be investigated for the development of novel tailored adsorbents to be used in different downstream processes based on the targeted application of the industrial partner.