Dear reader,

Welcome back to Agro2Circular, with our 5th newsletter!

In the last few months, many things have happened, keep reading for discovering the project's updates and news!

Agro2Circular consortium has gathered in Granada- Spain for their biannual general assembly meeting, where partners have shown their latest developments in the last phase of the project.

CNTC and DOMCA presented the scale-up of the extraction technologies for obtaining bioactives that have been used in the development of various food formulations; juices enriched in fibre and flavonoids, desserts, jams and vegan burgers with high fibre content and nutraceutical formulations with antioxidant properties. DOMCA organised an open day where the A2C consortium and relevant stakeholders had the opportunity to visit its facilities and see the microwave-assisted extraction technology demonstrator (DEMO 3).

All the technologies for the upcycling of multilayer metallised plastic packaging have been developed, the GWC decontamination process, the IRIS optical sorting of metallised and not metallised fractions, the saperatec delamination of multilayer films, the EPOCH enzymatic degradation of plastic fractions. These technologies are currently being integrated  in a demonstrator (DEMO 1) that will be shown in an open-day  to be organised in Murcia next March.

UNIMIB presented the processes developed for the bioconversion of the plastic enzymatic degradation products and fruit waste into building blocks, by using yeast , a technology that will be part of  the demonstrator 2.  As part of this demonstrator , cosmetic formulations are being developed,  using the obtained building blocks as secondary raw material ingredients. Another important technology, developed by CETEBIO and WETSUS within A2C project for the upcycling of fruit & vegetable waste,  has been the production of biodegradable  PHV-type plastic in a cell factory, which will be shown as demonstrator 5. This biodegradable plastic will be formulated by CETEC to obtain a more environmentally friendly material for the manufacturing of packaging and agricultural applications.

An important part of Agro2Circular project is the assessment  of the environmental impact of A2C circular solution and the optimisation of  water and energy management and by-product valorisation. For this purpose,  CEW, WETSUS and REGENERA had worked on providing the right technology for the 9 DEMOS, which are the final outcomes of the project, to ensure that they are environmentally  sustainable. On the other hand  VTT is  working in parallel on the LCA of the demonstrators.

Agro2Circular is now in its final phase of worklife, so keep following its developments and final steps!