
DEEP PURPLE
CONVERSION OF DILUTED MIXED URBAN BIO-WASTES INTO SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS AND PRODUCTS IN FLEXIBLE PURPLE PHOTOBIOREFINERIES
CONVERSION OF DILUTED MIXED URBAN BIO-WASTES INTO SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS AND PRODUCTS IN FLEXIBLE PURPLE PHOTOBIOREFINERIES
The EU generates almost 140 million tonnes of urban biowaste every year. Around 75 percent of this is sent for incineration or landfilled and has a major environmental impact. It is also a lost opportunity as much of this waste has the potential to be recycled. The main reason why the various waste streams are not recycled is that current methods of valorisation has a low performance, a high carbon footprint and most nutrients are dissipated. The waste streams are also highly heterogeneous and diluted, meaning that efforts to separate them at source are difficult.
In an effort to address this challenge and recover the potential from these urban wastestreams, DEEP PURPLE project aims to demonstrate a method of transforming diluted urban bio-wastes, including mixed waste streams, the organic fraction of municipal solid waste, waste water and sewage sludge into a sustainable source of feedstock for various bio-industries.
It will use an innovative approach, implemented by using a novel Multi-Platform Biorefinery Concept (Biomass, Cellulose and Biogas). This will replace current destructive and polluting practices.
The overall objective of DEEP PURPLE is to develop and demonstrate the viability of the concept of a versatile, integrated and flexible multi-platform biorefinery capable of extracting and recovering high added-value compounds from urban waste streams.
Within this, DEEP PURPLE has a number of specific objectives.
DEEP PURPLE aims to deliver a number of impacts. It seeks to:
Alkalinity is the key parameter for treatment of domestic wastewater
Resources, 20 July 2020
DEEP PURPLE's latest article shows that the efficient treatment of domestic wastewater by purple phototrophic bacteria is determined by alkalinity. The study contrasted it to the oxidation state of the organic material. Read article