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

几十年来，线性（取-造-弃）经济一直是常态。社会和企业现在认识到，这样的系统是不可持续的，无论是在经济上还是在环境上。一个新的概念，“循环经济”，提供了一个新的和创新的方法-一个重新想象我们如何利用我们的资源，认为副产品和废物作为宝贵的资源和经济机会，而不是成本。加拿大已经是世界上最大的豆类种植者和出口国之一，如豌豆，小扁豆，鹰嘴豆和豆类，有超过1200万英亩用于种植此类作物，但进入制造设施的豆类作物中有30%最终成为粮食损失。随着消费者对植物蛋白的需求增加，包括在加拿大和其他地方，有兴趣寻求肉类替代品，加拿大农业食品生产商将迫切需要找到他们目前没有应用的淀粉流的用途。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，北方阿尔伯塔理工学院（NAIT）的研究人员和学生将联合收割机结合生物化学、分析化学、微生物学、烹饪艺术、数据可视化、和数据分析来应对这一挑战。该团队将确定哪种类型的废物最适合开发更高价值的化学品，食品配料，或生物燃料产品。数据分析和生命周期分析还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。通过将目前以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手段。在农业食品部门实施这一解决方案旨在建立一个新的原料供应链，以减轻环境负担，为加拿大人带来多代人的经济和环境效益。将工业农业废物重新想象为增值产品开发的起点，将使加拿大经济重新走上长期可持续发展的道路。

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.