Suchergebnisse

Chemical and heat treatments are traditionally used to preserve the quality of food products. An alternative is based on the use of antimicrobials such as nisin to ensure food safety. Traditionally, nisin is produced by microbial fermentation in the exponential growth phase of Lactococcus lactis, which is a recognized starter culture in dairy products. However, its production process entails a high cost compared to its chemical-based counterparts, which reduces its competitiveness in the market. This study addresses the economic feasibility and environmental impacts of biotechnological co-production of nisin and lactic acid from three food-associated industrial waste streams: cheese whey (CW), sugar beet pulp (SBP) and corn stover (CS). To carry out the conceptual design of a process at an early stage of development, SuperPro Designer® is used as simulation tool for developing the process alternatives within an industrial approach. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology will be applied to identify the main environmental impacts associated with the production process. Based on the economic and environmental evaluation, SBP proved to be the best carbon source for the nisin production process, followed by CW. Regarding CS, this alternative should overcome the drawbacks associated with enzyme consumption and limited nisin production yield ; This research has been financially supported by the European project iFermenter (Grant Agreement 79057. Ifermenter is a project funded under the "Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme". The authors belong to the Galician Competitive Research Group (GRC ED431C 2017/29) and to the Cross-disciplinary Research in Environmental Technologies (CRETUS Research Center, ED431E 2018/01) ; SI

The development of biotechnological processes through which high added value products can be obtained, using non-valuable industrial streams, has become a primary objective in the scope of sustainability and circular economy strategies. It is in this context where this research report is framed, in which a biorefinery approach has been developed using mussel processing wastes (MPW) as a resource, thus avoiding the environmental impacts involved in their management. Through an enzymatic pre-treatment and a batch fermentation process, this waste stream is valorized, and three high added value products are obtained: pediocin, lactic acid and crude protein. To develop comparative scenarios, a detailed analysis of the environmental impacts associated with the production of pediocin at two purity levels (2.5 % and 95% w/w), using the MPW and a commercial fermentation medium (MRS) has been performed by applying the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. The results obtained show the great potentiality of MPW as C-source, both from an environmental, economic and technological point of view since, when compared with MRS, the carbon footprint is reduced from 24.02 to 15.87 and from 23.85 to 15.66 kg CO2 eq/kg of products for a purity of 2.5% and 95% w/w of pediocin, respectively. Besides, analogous impact reduction values are observed for the rest of the impact categories evaluated. However, certain hot spots have been identified, which future improvement studies should focus: energy and calorific requirements, mainly, as a contribution higher than 50% is observed for most of the impact categories ; This research has been financially supported by the European project iFermenter, Spain (Grant Agreement 79057). IFermenter is a project funded under the "Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme". The authors belong to the Galician Competitive Research Group (GRC ED431C 2017/29) and to the Cross-disciplinary Research in Environmental Technologies (CRETUS ...