value-added products from suppressed beet...
TRANSCRIPT
Value-added products
from suppressed beet
pulps
Alessandra Zamagni1, Paolo Masoni2
1Ecoinnovazione, spin-off ENEA 2ENEA
Towards a zero waste food chain: key enabling technologies for the food industry sustainability and waste exploitation in a circular economy perspective
Ecomondo, November 4th, 2015
Combining bio-economy and circularity
• Turning root vegetable waste streams into value-added products: development of a patented bioprocess for producing multi-functional additives in paints and coatings (Curran®) – Diverting waste to this innovative process offers a reuse solution higher up in the
waste hierarchy
– Additive for rheology modification and mechanical enhancement (simultaneously) in water-based systems
– Replication potential in cosmetics, food and pharmaceuticals
– Traditional rheology modifiers: cellulose ethers, from wood or cotton derived chemically modified cellulose
– Traditional strengtheners: mainly fibers of mineral fillers
• Raw materials: vegetable waste (carrots and sugar beets)
• Technology developed at laboratory scale: to be up-scaled to full scale commercial production plant (primary market barrier)
• Technology innovation carried out in the framework of EU project “EcoADD - Sustainable Additives for Paints & Coatings and Concrete”
Curran ® is expected to be a sustainable alternative
but how to evaluate and possibly measure it?
Curran® technology system
Animal feed production system (minimal impact in €)
Cellulose production from wood or cotton
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How to approach the sustainability assessment?
• Evaluating the sustainability of the innovative process requires
taking into account all the sustainability aspects
• Scientifically robust and internationally recognised methods
are necessary
• Life cycle-based methods are necessary to ensure that:
– A broad set of indicators (not just carbon footprint) are accounted for;
– Trade-offs are accounted for, within the environmental domain and among the different sustainability aspects
– The whole value chain is represented
– A materiality-based approach is pursued
– Direct and indirect effects are accounted for
• What method to use? Life cycle Sustainability Assessment
(LCSA): at least LCA, Social LCA, Life Cycle Costing (LCC)
Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment study
• Analysed system (for the LCA analysis): 1 kilogram of finished
Curran® (sold in powder formulation) and its primary packaging with
fibreboard drums.
• Beet pulps enter the system with some environmental burdens
(different allocation criteria have been tested)
• LCA: Product Environmental Footprint Guide
• LCC: SETAC Code of Practice (2011).
– Obj: to evaluate the economic convenience of producing Curran® (determining
the right price)
• Social LCA (UNEP/SETAC SLCA Guidelines):
– It support the assessment of social and sociological aspects of products, their
actual and potential positive as well as negative impacts along the life cycle
– It makes use of generic and site-specific data, can be quantitative, semi-
quantitative or qualitative, and complements LCA and LCC.
Social LCA
Source: Social LCA Guidelines – UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative, 2009
Potential social aspects of interest:
• Improving air quality for operators in the production of Curran® and for end users (paints&coating formulators)
• New employment for plant operators and sales people
• Enhance reputation of products’ suppliers
• Up-value of the vegetable waste stream
Which questions can be answered by these
methods?
• Which potential environmental impacts can be attributed to the production of
rheology modifiers for the paint&coating market with the Curran® technology?
• How the new rheology modifiers produced with the Curran® technology
performs with respect to a functionally equivalent product on the market from
the environmental point of view?
• From the environmental point of view, is it convenient to build up a centralised
plant, that serves the market needs at EU level, or several decentralised plants
closed to the feedstock suppliers and to the product’s consumers?
• What are the environmental consequences due to the introduction of the new
rheology modifiers produced with the Curran ® technology in the
paints&coatings market?
LCA
• What is the price at which Curran® can be competitive on the market?
• What are the main social consequences due to the introduction of Curran® into
the market?
• What are the main social benefits and impacts along the whole value chain?
LCC and SLCA
Some considerations
• Combining bio-economy and circularity is powerful but … the foreseen pros
and cons have to be carefully evaluated (from the sustainability point of
view)
• A scientific approach is necessary, which has to go beyond the direct
system under control
– Indirect effects, at environmental, market and socio-economic level have to be
considered (at least qualitatively)
– Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment is a suitable approach and requires a deep
understanding of the methods and on how to properly interpret them
• Such technical systems (Curran®) are complex and the assessment cannot
be simplified
– Favour completeness over precision
– Also qualitative information are powerful and useful (Social LCA): we can indeed
manage also what we cannot properly quantify… but we need to know that
exists!
• Circular economy is already there: many potential innovations
(waste are a significant resources) and an analytical approach to
sustainability can also support the deployment at industrial scale
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