DEMETER

Demonstrating more efficient enzyme production to increase biogas yields

Project details

Type of project: Innovation Action - Demonstration
Project focus: Biogas
Feedstock origin: Agri-food
Feedstock type: Food industry sidestreams

Project period: 1 August 2016 - 31 January 2020
Status: Completed
CBE JU Contribution: € 4 629 586
Call identifier: H2020-BBI-PPP-2015-02

Summary

A recently developed enzyme has the potential to increase biogas yield by 10% or more. However, the current fermentation process does not yield enough to make it cost effective for industrial deployment.

The DEMETER project wants to increase this yield by at least 20%, making it far more cost effective and more easily available for widespread use. The project will improve and scale-up fermentation to improve protein yields while retaining quality using a number of techniques.

It will improve downstream processing of the fermentation broth, reducing costs by at least 15% and demonstrate industrial and economic the feasibility of the entire project using a 15,000 litre pilot plant. It will also develop a model that can predictive how adding the enzyme will impact biogas yield.

To demonstrate a yield increase and cost reduction of the C1-LC4 enzyme production process as well as its positive effect on biogas production in Europe.
To improve and scale-up the C1-LC4-producing fermentation process to yield at least 20% more protein while retaining quality.
To improve downstream processing of the fermentation broth leading to a cost reduction of at least 15%.
To demonstrate the improved production process in a 15 000 L pilot plant
To demonstrate the industrial and economic feasibility to apply a cost-effective C1-LC4 enzyme product in biogas plants.
To develop a predictive model of the effect of enzyme addition on the biogas yield of a given fermentation process.
To analyse the impact of the developed processes and products on environment and economy.

Higher process yields of at least 20% compared to the state of the art
Cost reduction of at least 15% compared to conventional down-stream processing of the fermentation broth
Increasing the overall productivity leading to more economically feasible processes, to be proven at demonstration scale
Contributing to realising the objectives of Key Enabling Biotechnology under Horizon 2020 and dedicated EU policy