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COLDREFINERY

The COLDREFINERY Concept

Building a solid concept for valorizing waste from food systems that considers the needs and the prevailing conditions, is a key pillar of the transition into a sustainable society in the Nordic-Baltic region. The overall aim of COLDREFINERY is to develop a cold-adaptative biorefinery concept to recover biogas, volatile fatty acids (VFA) and nutrients from wastes from food systems in a sustainable, carbon-neutral and energy-efficient manner.

An important circular economy concept is transforming waste from food systems to value-added bioenergy (e.g. biogas) and bioproducts (e.g. organic fertilizer) that can be used for food production. Bio-based production in cold requires input energy to increase the temperature which may not be energy-efficient. The COLDREFINERY project will devise innovative nature-inspired strategies to increase the efficiency of bio-based production under low temperatures from waste from food systems.

In this project, wastes from the food system (e.g. food waste, agricultural waste) will be used to produce biogas and volatile fatty acids under cold temperatures and recover phosphorus and nitrogen. Producing these agricultural inputs will close food systems' energy and material loops. COLDREFINERY will also develop a decision support system by integrating process models, data, and artificial intelligence techniques to create a digital twin as well as a user-friendly software prototype for stakeholders to monitor and control processes while exploring environmental performance and potential business models to facilitate the full-scale implementation of this innovative cold-adapted biorefinery concept in the food systems.

Overall, this project will result in establishing a novel bio-based production platform based on the valorization of wastes from food systems to recover bioenergy and bioproducts to replace petroleum-based products to help transition to a fossil-free and sustainable society. The project will design an integrated bio-based production system as an energy-efficient and sustainable alternative for the food system to ensure a smooth transition to a sustainable society in the Nordic and Baltic regions as well as the world.

Project period

November 2024 to November 2027

Funding

NordForsk (multiple funding from national agencies)

Total budget

12 709 781 NOK

Participating universities, companies and other organisations

  • KTH Royal Institute of Technology
  • Estonian University of Life Sciences
  • Technical University of Denmark
  • Aalto University
  • IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute