FermoChar: Fermentation residue into engineered char-based materials for sustainable industrial applications; A pathway to NetZero

Fermentation is a major upstream process in many food, feed, beverages, biopharmaceutical and biotechnological industries. It is a metabolic process where microorganisms are responsible for chemical reactions to convert certain carbohydrates into various products. The choice of the product is usually based on the type of the microorganism used and the fermentation method.

Upon the completion of the process, the broth is centrifuged to form supernatant, where the targeted products are usually dissolved, and residual solid waste that is composed of the cells, remaining feedstock and other metabolites. These residual solids are usually incinerated/landfilled or utilised by some industries to produce fertilisers and animal feed (not considered as process revenue). The separated liquid supernatant is subjected to downstream processing to extract and purify the targeted product. The downstream process is considered immensely costly and energy incentive stage as it consists of several steps of purification and utilise various materials. Adsorbents, such as char, are commonly used in these downstream process steps for purification and/ clarification of the products.

This project is designed to provide an innovative and sustainable solution for a variety of biopharmaceutical and biotechnological industries. The residual waste from the fermentation process will be valorised into engineered value-added adsorbents that could be utilised in the downstream process or considered as process revenue. The properties of the developed adsorbents will mainly depend on the feedstock used and the type of cells. The project consists of two industrial partners from different fields including pharmaceutical and bioplastics that are utilising different feedstock and microorganisms and hence the produced bio-solids and resulting adsorbent material will vary. Modification of the produced materials will be investigated for the development of novel tailored adsorbents to be used in different downstream processes based on the targeted application of the industrial partner.