PHA through continuous, Tunable, Safe and Sustainable production

PHACTUS aims to scale up (final TRL 6-7) a 1st-of-its-kind continuous process for production of biodegradable polymers (namely the copolymer PHBV, belonging to the polyhydroxyalkanoate family, PHA) starting from organic waste and using mixed microbial cultures. Being all competing processes based on discontinuous (batch) or sequential (sequencing batch) modes, the transition to a continuous process aims to make the PHA production cheaper, more reliable and more sustainable. To date, the continuos processwas demonstrated on a bench scale with synthetic substrates (TRL 3), and not including upstream and downstream. PHACTUS will realize, operate and optimize a continuos-flow pilot plant for the production of PHA (from urban biowaste and sludge from municipal wastewater treatment), including continuous upstream and downstream steps (acidogenic fermentation of organic waste and PHA extraction, respectively). Also, the development of advanced online monitoring and control (using novel online probes, process modelling and digital tools) will make the process more robust and reliable. Based on pilot plant production capacity (around 3 kg PHA per day), 3 PHA grades (at purity >50, >80, and >95%) will be available for development of PHA-based biomaterials, for several uses such as civil construction, agriculture, coatings and packaging. Moreover, several end-of-life solutions will be experimentally tested, such as conventional mechanical recycling and carbon recovery through anaerobic digestion as well solvent reprocessing and chemical/organic recycle (i.e. returning back to PHA precursors in order to obtain new PHA). In parallel, safety and sustainability (environmental, social and economical) of the whole technology chain (process and product) will be ensured through alignment with Sustainable and Safe by Design framework, also taking care of regulatory compliance (both waste and product sides), market strategies, and replicability at regional level in the EU.