Activatec’s mission is to provide sustainable innovations to overcome the consumption challenge faced by the growing global population, and to meet the need to become less dependent on non-renewable ingredients and products.

Activatec counts on a proficient team of chemical and biochemical engineers and researchers with experience in the industrial biotech that works to provide a confidential service with an efficient and high-quality product output:

What they do

• Identify and evaluate the products to be targeted, technology screening and assessment.
• Demonstrate the technical feasibility and Proof of Concept to client-defined specs.
• Develop the up-scaled manufacturing process flowsheet.
• Identify potential hazards and operability problems and regulatory requirements.
• Specify the equipment, operation conditions and streams, calculate the detailed material and energy balances, prepare preliminary cost estimations and the business case.
• Managing effectively contractors, scheduling and managing project phases.

Activatec has experience in R&D partnerships with industry and research institutes, managing and participating in both local and international collaborative projects. Activatec is a member of the BioVale cluster that promotes and develops the bioeconomy in the UK.

Role in Project

The research staff involved will be in charge of the optimisation of the conditions and techniques to extract and purify the PHAs and ectoine. The engineers will then scale-up and design the equipment for their use in the pilot plant. Activatec will develop the strategies for ectoine and PHAs production in order to provide with the materials with enough quality for the production of their final cosmetic and plastic products. Finally, Activatec will develop the overall process simulation for the optimization of the biorefinery and the manufacturing of the compounds and then analyse the economic viability of the new value chains proposed.

What they do

They participate and coordinate EU and national research & development projects. Their specialization includes exploitation of renewable resources and their clean processing as well as the design of biodegradable or perfectly recyclable products (“Cradle to Cradle”® projects).
alchemia-nova helped to develop the concept of the cascading utilization of renewables (short “Biocascading”), with the focus on utilizing complex natural chemical molecules in applications with highest possible value creation before considering bulk uses of the more common components.
The main activities of alchemia-nova may be summarized in the following points:

• Scientific expertise on natural resources
• Evaluation of renewable resources
• Phytotechnologies
• Cradle to Cradle® projects including certification as official partner
• Circular flow economy
• Sustainable product design
• Processing-chain analysis of renewable resources and proposal of optimization strategies
• Development of cascading utilization strategies for renewables
• Implementation of possible biogenic substitutes for fossil products
• Conception, coordination and realization of research- and innovation projects

Role in Project

alchemia-nova supports this project as communication manager to communicate and disseminate the project outputs and topics.

It currently provides services to 22.5 million people in 1,100 municipalities in 18 countries: Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, United Arab Emirates, Spain, France, Italy, Mexico, Oman, Panama, Portugal, Qatar, the Czech Republic, Romania and Tunisia. The company reported EUR 1,115 million of revenue in 2018, with an order back log of nearly EUR 15,000 million.

What they do

Aqualia´s activity comprises 3 major areas among which, it creates synergies in knowledge, methodology, research and development, working with local partners and administrations:

• Integral management of public water services.
• Design and construction of all types of water infrastructures.
• Global solutions for the use of water in industry.

The Innovation and Technology Department of AQUA is in charge of over 15 industrially oriented demo projects, and has international activities focusing on Portugal, Italy and the Czech Republic as well as Latin America. Design-Build-Operate Contracts for major water and wastewater infrastructure are currently being executed in Romania, FYR Countries, North Africa and South-America. Moreover, Aqualia has a long experience developing innovative solutions for wastewater treatment, as its main is the management of municipal water services.

Role in project

Aqualia is the coordinator of the DEEP PURPLE project and leader of WP3 and WP8. Its main tasks in the project follow:

• WP1: definition of management strategies for feedstock production from bio-waste streams and quality requirements of bio-waste streams, intermediates and final bio-based products.
• WP3: validation and demonstration of the photobiorefinery concept at demo scale in two demo sites (Spain and Czech Republic).
• WP5: supply of operational data from demo sites’ experience for the delivery of a full LCA, CAPex, OPex and SWOT analysis.
• WP6: contribution to the strategies for stakeholder engagement, development of new business models and market penetration.
• WP7: organization of communication and dissemination activities.
• WP8: effective management and coordination of the project and a transparent Intellectual Property Rights protection.

Three multidisciplinary groups are bringing expertise to fulfill the DEEP-Purple activities.

The Water Research group (WRG) concentrates on providing research solutions for recycling water and offering sustainable water resources for domestic and industrial uses. The group deploys novel processes for wastewater purification and resource recovery and data driven analytics for monitoring, control and modelling in water resource management. In addition, WRG has global reputation in research and development of solutions for Circular Economy modelling and resource recovery technologies in Water Industry. The team has interdisciplinary expertise from various fields of water resources management and resilience.

The Nano cellulose and Bio Composite Research Centre at Brunel has intensive research experiences from nano to messo to macro materials, their innovative applications and the end of life circular strategies in construction, including polymers, ceramics, cementitious materials, nano-composite processing and soft solids and natural materials. In addition to the processing of materials, the Centre has expertise in the synthesis and morphological control of small organic and inorganic micrometre and nanometre sized particles.

The Systems Engineering Research Group (SERG) Laboratory in Brunel is a million Pound facility and expanding, specializing in Sensors Networks, IoT, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, Data Analytics, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence in measuring performance, risks, threats and in control, optimization and knowledge-based decision support systems.

BRUNEL group has generated a substantial portfolio of research contracts from the UK and EU (FP5, FP6, FP7 and H2020 projects) and also directly from major industries.

Relevant on-going projects:

• Demonstration of water loops with innovative regenerative business models for the Mediterranean region (HYDROUSA) HORIZON2020; CIRC-02-2016-2017
• COST Action CA17133; Implementing nature based solutions for creating a resourceful circular city
• Scale-up of low-carbon footprint Material Recovery Techniques for upgrading existing wastewater treatment Plants (SMART-Plant), HORIZON2020 WATER-1b-2015
• Circular Shop Window, Industrial Project with Anglian Water
• Highly efficient cladding eco-panels with improved Nano-insulation properties (GELCLAD) H2020-EEB- 2016.
• Mobilisation and utilisation of Recycled Wood for lignocellulosic BioRefinery processes. EU ‘REWOBIOREF’ 2017.
• Highly efficient production of ultra-lightweight clay-aerogel materials and their integrated composites for building insulation. EU ‘ICECLAY’ 2015

Role in project

In line with the main aim of circular economy – to decouple resource use and environmental impact from the economic activities, Brunel will develop and apply a unified circularity assessment methodology to evaluate the circularity performance and the trade-offs between technology performance and aspects of resource recovery of the DEEP PURPLE technologies. Circularity indicators will be developed that will provide a demonstrable and visual interface for evaluation of the circularity potential of the DEEP PURPLE project and will support the operational, legislative and policy targets.

New cost-effective sustainable encapsulation methods based on Cellulose Nanofibers and PHA bioplastics recovered from the DEEP PURPLE Cellulose and Biomass Platforms are developed and validated in Brunel laboratories that will result in self-healing biocomposites with application in the construction sector. Bio-concrete will be developed and tested under different conditions with the capacity of healing itself without any human intervention with enhanced strength and water permeability properties during the whole service cycle.

Brunel will also design and provide the automation and control system for the DEEP PURPLE photobioreactors. The decision support system (DSS) of the DEEP PURPLE bioreactors will be based on the analysis of the operational data and the identification and evaluation of criteria controlling the selection of optimal operational conditions. The outcome of the DSS will serve as a basis for full-scale implementation of the DEEP PURPLE photobiorefinery in real environments.

What they do

Groupe Roullier offers innovating solutions mastering all the steps in commercial and industrial processes. Its core businesses are:

• Fertilization for extensive crops and specialized cultures
• Feed with nutritional supplements
• Extraction and commercialization of natural raw materials

Owner of terrestrial and marine amendments, the agricultural supplies branch of the Groupe Roullier offers a wide range of mineral and organic fertilizers with high added value and offers several ranges of fertilizers for crops and specialized crops.

Groupe Roullier, by his subsidiary TIMAC AGRO INTERNATIONAL,  is one of the rare players in the world of animal and plant nutrition to have its own labs. Its capacity to innovate is above all dedicated to customer services, their needs and their expectations. The Groupe Roullier teams have been meeting the real needs of the industry in this sector.

Role in Project

The research and innovation infrastructures are regrouped in the company AgroInnovation International (Centre Mondial de l’Innovation – Roullier).  AgroInnovation International is involved into DEEP PURPLE project :

• To innovate process and formulations for new fertilizers
• To demonstrate the agronomic efficiency of new products
• To publish the results of its research in technical or scientific magazines

The FCC Group, a world leader in Environmental Services, Water Management and Infrastructures, has been delivering Services to Cities for more than 115 years and is present in over 30 countries, with 59,000 people and 6 billion euro turnover.

What they do

FCC Medio Ambiente provides environmental services to 60 million people in more than 5,000 municipalities. From waste management and recycling to every municipal service, it processes annually 23.5 million tonnes of waste as a resource at nearly 200 sustainable facilities, recovering 3.2 million tonnes of recyclables and 360 MW of non-fossil power. Innovation is in the DNA of FCC Medio Ambiente, committed to reaching the UN’s Agenda 2030 SDG by means of developing e-mobility and boosting the society to transform towards a Circular Economy model.

Apart from DEEP PURPLE FCC Medio Ambiente participates in other 10 circular economy and bioeconomy innovation projects

FCC Medio Ambiente coordinates:

· LIFE PLASMIX  (LIFE18 ENV/ES/000045: Plastic mix recovery and pp PP & PS recycling from municipal solid waste)

· LIFE 4FILM (LIFE17 ENV/ES/000229: Post consumption film plastic recycling from municipal solid waste)

· LIFE LANDFILL BIOFUEL (LIFE18 ENV/ES/000256: Integral management of the biogas from landfills for use as vehicle fuel)

· INSECTUM  (CIEN CDTI:IDI-20181075 Biowaste valorization by means of its conversion with insects into new high value added by-products for strategic sectors)

· VALOMASK  (Design and development of a sustainable management process for discarded masks)

FCC Medio Ambiente participates:

· H2020 SCALIBUR  (H2020 GA817788: Scalable technologies for bio-urban waste recovery)

· LIFE METHAmorphosis (LIFE 14/CCM/ES/000865: Waste streams treatment for obtaining safe reclaimed water and biomethane for transport sector to mitigate GHG emissions)

· BBI B-FERST (BBI: GA837583 Bio-based fertilising products as the best practice for agricultural management sustainability)

· ECLOSION  (MISIONES MIG-20211071 New materials, technologies and processes for the generation, storage, transport and integration of renewable hydrogen and biomethane from biowaste)

Role in project

FCC is responsible for the design and operation of the thermal hydrolysis process for the OFMSW.

The organic fraction of the municipal solid waste will be separated at the municipal solid waste treatment plant by means of a mechanical pre-treatment process in order to obtain a clean a fraction of organic material with less than 10 mm size. This fraction of  OFMSW will be treated by means of thermal hydrolysis with steam explosion process in order to solubilize the content of organic matter and nutrients. Thermal hydrolysis releases to the liquid much of the content in C and nutrients of the residue. Demo-scale thermal hydrolysis is going to be optimized to maximize the release of the organic matter, minimize the release of nutrients into the liquid fraction (controlling complete proteins decomposition), and the costs of the processes.  Steam explosion will be used as the main driver to rapidly decompose the biomass.

The operating conditions of the thermal hydrolysis by steam explosion will be analysed in order to optimize the industrial process, maximizing organic matter and minimizing nutrients (i.e. N, P, K and Mg) releases to the liquid stream and minimizing energy consumption.

What they do

Gate2Growth has developed a range of online and offline tools (assessment tools and support tools) as well as guidance material and entrepreneur-targeted Master Classes, which are addressing all issues connected to business development, including business models, investor readiness, business planning, innovation financing. Recently, the accumulated experiences of the company have been summarized in the book written by the CEO, Uffe Bundgaard-Jørgensen, “How to Attract Investors – a personal guide to understanding their mindset and requirements” Pan-Stanford Publishing, 2016.

Role in project

Gate2Growth will lead tasks in DEEP PURPLE relating to economic assessment, market uptake and exploitation, with the aim of evaluating the economic feasibility of the DEEP PURPLE biorefinery concept and ultimately replicating it Europe-wide while securing successful commercialization for the products created from this process.

What they do

The area of Environmental Technology of ISP works in the development of sustainable processes for the treatment, recovery and valorisation of pollutants. Most of these processes are based on biotechnologies, which usually exhibit lower costs, high efficiency and less environmental impact to their physical/chemical counterparts. In this context ISP offers a wide range of solutions based on biotechnologies to solve environmental problems in the industrial sector including:

• Anaerobic and aerobic wastewater treatment.
• Anaerobic membrane wastewater treatment.
• Systems biology and metabolic engineering applied to pollutant valorisation.
• Removal of wastewater emerging micropollutants using advanced oxidation processes.
• Microalgae-based processes for wastewater treatment.
• Valorisation of waste biomass including microalgal biomass.
• Biological gas treatment (volatile organic compounds, odors, greenhouse gases).
• Anaerobic digestion.
• Biogas upgrading through biological processes.
• Molecular microbiology and bioindication including microbial diversity analyses.

Role in project

The Institute of Sustainable Processes in Deep Purple will enrich robust microbial consortia from natural environments and provide operational guidelines for biogas bioconversion into ectoine in high-mass transfer bioreactors, and will design, construct and optimize a 2 m³ demo-scale biogas conversion bioreactor installed in a real environment.

What they do

ITENE provides business solutions with an integrated view of the supply chain, from raw materials to the design and development of packaging, optimization of logistics and distribution of goods until the products reach consumers and are ultimately managed as waste, all within a framework of sustainable performance.

ITENE collaborates with research centers and companies around the world, encouraging cooperation and technology transfer. The centre was founded in 1994 and currently employs 165 persons.

Role in project

ITENE is involved in several work packages (WP) and tasks in the DEEP PURPLE project. In WP1, ITENE will define the decontamination procedures for the cellulose recovered from wastewater and sewage sludge. The decontaminated cellulose will be then valorised by ITENE WP2 in two different approaches: (i) by means of their saccharification into fermentable sugars for its further use in the downstream processes to obtain biobased polyesters and (ii) by the production and surface modification of nanofibrillated cellulose (CNFs), that will be used to produce nanocomposites of PHA reinforced with CNFs, which ITENE will validate for packaging applications in WP4 at lab scale.

ITENE is the leader of WP5, which is related to the environmental, social and economic assessment of the DEEP PURPLE processes and their final products. In particular, ITENE will assess the environmental impacts thought a full life cycle assessment (LCA). ITENE will also contribute in terms of dissemination and exploitation knowledge transfer in WP7.

What they do

With its daughter company BiopolyNov, they provide support to industrialists from the origin to the industrialisation of their innovative project. Thanks to their R&D expertise acquired during the years, NaturePlast and BiopolyNov are renowned major player in the development and production of formulations for clients and collaborative projects.

Role in Project

NaturePlast is the leader of Work Package 4: Industrial Application of Materials and Products. NaturePlast is also leader of R&D operations for the formulation and compounds production based on the PHAs and CNFs produced by the Deep Purple pilot. Thanks to its expertise and dedicated equipments, NaturePlast will process and characterize the compounds based on PHAs and CNFs obtained from the biorefinery.

Novamont’s mission is to develop materials and biochemicals through the integration of chemistry and agriculture, by starting up biorefineries in the local areas and providing application solutions that ensure efficient use of resources throughout their entire life cycle, with advantages for the social, economic and environmental system.

What they do

Novamont promotes an approach to bioeconomy based on the efficient use of renewable resources and on the regeneration of local areas, building world-first plants based on proprietary technologies and revitalising industrial sites that are decommissioned or no longer competitive to create new industries, new products and new jobs.

Besides being an industrial company, Novamont is also a research centre which covers a wide range of expertise and specializations, with equipment and facilities ranging from laboratory scale activities to innovative pilot plants. Over the years it has developed five proprietary technologies for the production of bioplastics and bioproducts, creating synergies between the different areas of study (Bioplastics, Biotechnology, Agronomics and Organic Chemistry).

Role in project

Within DEEP PURPLE project, Novamont will be involved in the biotechnological conversion of sustainable feedstock into building blocks for the formulation of new bioplastics for the targeted industrial applications.

What they do

RNB is dedicated to the research, development and production of fragrances and facial, body and solar care products among other cosmetic products. With 30 years of experience in cosmetics their laboratory is one of the largest ones in Europe, with a turnover of more than € 90 million per year. RNBs research, development and innovation team continually works to incorporate the latest developments and trends in the cosmetic market. This is how they develop innovative and surprising formulas, textures and experiences, launching around 60 products per year, about 5 new products per month. Currently, their portfolio consists of more than 500 products for sale internationally. Their workforce is composed by more than 500 people. RNB has established a unique and differential customer-centric supply model that allows them to develop their products suiting the needs of each one of them. This is also possible thanks to the team work with their suppliers and with the different retailers, the adaptation to the market and the knowledge of the consumer as well as the cosmetic business.

Role in project

RNB will produce 2 cosmetic products with ectoine obtained from urban waste streams in the RNB laboratories located in Valencia (Spain).

What they do

More than 32.000 standards in catalogue, 200 national technical committees and 150 responsibilities (chairpersons, secretariats, convenors) in international standardization technical committees are a sample of the experience developed as national standards body during more than 30 years.

Formally, it is a non-profit-making, private, independent and multisectoral organization, recognized at National, European and International levels. Through the development of technical standards helps improving the quality, competitiveness and innovation of companies, products and services.

UNE has a large experience in supporting research and innovation communities when taking advantage of standards and standardization to increase the impact of their activities, approaching their results to the industry, society and market environments.

Role in project

UNE is in charge of the standardization task in the project. This task contributes to the market update objectives of the project and with the successful commercialization of the DEEP PURPLE innovative products.

UNE tasks are oriented to facilitate the acceptance and utilization by the make to f the developed solutions by using standards and the standardization system.

Researchers at URJC affiliated with the BBI JU program are part of the Chemical and Environmental Engineering Research Group (GIQA, www.giqa.es) of the Higher School of Experimental Sciences and Technology, established in 1998. The promotion of R&D&i activities in the group is carried out through collaborations with companies and institutions, and participation in national and international calls that allow our researchers to develop their research lines contributing to the generation, expansion and dissemination of knowledge, and the advancement of science and technology. In particular, URJC has a strong background with research areas close linked with the task of the proposal such as: renewable and clean energies; environment, resources and sustainability; green technologies and valorization of wastes. The Group is composed of 128 people: 14 full professors, 24 associate professors, 9 post-doctoral researchers, 56 PhD students and 18 laboratory technicians, as well as a considerable number of undergraduate students who are initiating in active research. GIQA is currently working at 10 research lines and, in the last 5 years, around 250 papers have been published in international scientific journals of highly impact.

The biotechnology laboratory supports the cultivation and characterization of purple phototrophic bacteria (PPB) (membrane photo-bioreactors, continuous and discontinuous photo-fermenters, IR-illuminated temperature-controlled orbital shakers, static stoves and ovens for drying and calcination, VIS-NIR spectrophotometer, VIS-NIR spectroradiometer, light microscope, thermocycler, and laminar flow cabinet). Moreover, it possess different analytical techniques for the determination of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous and heavy metal species, and polymers like poly-phosphate, glycogen and poly-hydroxy-alcanoates (PHAs) (microwave and thermal digesters, total organic carbon analyzer, UV-VIS spectrophotometer, Total Kjeldalh Nitrogen analyzer, HPLC-IR, HPLC-DAD, GC-TCD, GC-FID, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), selective electrodes for pH, conductivity, temperature, dissolved oxygen). The Laboratory of water characterization (LAGUA; www.lagua-urjc.es) and the collaborative BRUKER-URJC laboratory provide a wide range of analytical techniques with special focus on GC-MS, LC-MS and LC-MS/MS mass spectrometry facilities. Finally, the laboratory of organism’s cultivation (CULTIVE) has two phytotron units, several climatic chambers and a greenhouse to evaluate the potential of the fertilizers.

Role in project

• Operation of a pilot-scale PPB photobioreactor to be fed with domestic wastewater and the liquid fraction of the hydrolyzed OFMSW.
• Optimization of downstream processes of PPB biomass to be converted into raw organic fertilizers. Determination of critical control parameters of the process.
• Optimization of the PPB photobioreactor to accumulate de excess of nutrients in form of PHA, as well as the downstream processes to extract the PHA.
• Design of a multi-physics mechanistic model, involving biochemical processes, light irradiation and continuous fluid-dynamics to optimize the anaerobic photo-bioreactors operation and set the conditions for further scale-up to demonstrative plant.

URJC will lead the simultaneous treatment of domestic wastewater and the liquid fraction of the hydrolyzed OFMSW at TRL 5-6 with 3 objectives:

1. complete decontamination of the wastewater by assimilative uptake of C, N, P and other nutrients as K and Mg into a biological, solid biomass, mainly composed by purple phototrophic bacteria (PPB),
2. analysis of the PHA accumulation by PPB biomass, and
3. extraction and dewatering of PPB biomass to be converted into raw organic fertilizers.

Pilot-scale plant:

URJC will operate 2 pilot scale anaerobic raceways (0.5 m3 each), which will be illuminated by sun irradiation filtrated with UV/VIS specific absorbent materials. The PPB biomass uptakes both organics and nutrients, and part of these organics are accumulated as PHA. The biomass is separated and recirculated into the system by means of conventional secondary settlement. Critical control parameters to be assayed will be hydraulic and solid retention times (HRT, SRT), which will be varied between 12 and 48 h, and 2 and 8 d, respectively, targeting either the raw organic fertilizers (biomass) or the PHA production. Additionally, the hydraulic circulation rate will be also analyzed to explore its effect on the biomass stratification and IR radiation penetration. At the end of this stage, the technology will achieve TRL 6.

Other tasks involving URJC are:

• Advising and supervising the operation of the demonstrative plants during the whole life of the project. This includes simulation of the process for optimization, external data analysis and travelling to demo plants for meetings. Additionally, bidirectional data sharing between low and high scales will be assessed for continuous process tuning.
• Dissemination of project results through scientific journal articles, international conferences, and local divulgative activities, including promotional videos and spreading promotional information over academic and administrative public.