Project description
Converting CO2 emissions into organic acids
The conversion of industrial CO2 emissions is gaining significant interest as a strategy to alleviate the effects of climate change. Bio-based industries are primary candidates to turn emissions into feedstock. The EU-funded VIVALDI project proposes an integrated solution for the conversion of biogenic CO2 into added-value organic acids (succinic, itaconic, 3-hydroxypropionic and lactic) powered by ground-breaking advances in CO2 electrochemical conversion and bioprocess engineering. The solution will involve CO2 enrichment from industrial sources and its electrochemical reduction to formic acid (FA) and methanol (MeOH), as well as bioelectrochemical nutrient recovery from industrial wastewaters. Furthermore, organic acids will be bio-produced via a microbial platform based on engineered yeast strains, using MeOH/FA/CO2 and nutrients, followed by the industrial validation of the products.
Objective
The valorisation of industrialCO2 emissions is a cornerstone in EU strategies for climate change and circular economy. Bio-based Industries (BIs) are perfect candidates to apply this CO2 valorisation, since they could to turn their biorefineries emissions into feedstock and close the carbon loop. Nevertheless, there is still a strong need of reliable and cost-efficient CO2 conversion technologies to make it possible.
VIVALDI proposes an integrated solution allowing the conversion of biogenic CO2 into added-value organic acids, powered by ground-breaking advances in CO2 purification, electrochemical catalysis, microbiology, synthetic biology, and bioprocess engineering. The solution comprises 4 main steps:
1. CO2 purification/enrichment from industrial streams and electrochemical reduction to formic acid (FA) and methanol (MeOH) using electrochemical reactors and gas diffusion electrodes.
2. Nutrient recovery (NH4+, Ca2+, Mg2+, K+) from industrial wastewaters using bioelectrochemical systems.
3. Bioproduction of target organic acids using a microbial platform based on specific engineered yeast strains (P. Pastoris), using as feedstock MeOH/FA/CO2 from step 1 and nutrients from step 2.
4. Industrial validation of the bioproduced organic acids (i.e. efficient downstream processing and on-site industrial validation).
VIVALDI will use real gas emissions from 4 key BIs and will focus on the bioproduction of 4 industrially relevant organic acids with different applications and market penetration (LA,SA,IA,3-HP). These acids can re-enter the production process flowchart of biorefineries, thus enhancing the sustainability of their current products or even opening new business possibilities.
Moreover, VIVALDIs feasibility will be confirmed also through an integral sustainability assessment (technical, environmental and socio-economic) to ensure that the proposed solution can be adopted and integrated in any biorefinery.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. This project's classification has been validated by the project's team.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. This project's classification has been validated by the project's team.
- natural scienceschemical sciencesorganic chemistryorganic acids
- natural scienceschemical scienceselectrochemistrybioelectrochemistry
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesenvironmental sciencessustainability sciences
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringcarbon capture engineering
- social scienceseconomics and businesseconomicssustainable economy
Keywords
Programme(s)
Call for proposal
(opens in new window) H2020-FNR-2020
See other projects for this callSub call
H2020-FNR-2020-2
Funding Scheme
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinator
08193 Cerdanyola Del Valles
Spain