ALEHOOP provides the demonstration at pilot scale of both sustainable macroalgae and legume-based biorefineries for the recovery of low-cost dietary proteins from alga-based and plant residual biomass and their validation to meet market requirements of consumers and industry in the food and feed sectors. In these sectors, consumers are demanding affordable functional natural proteins from alternative sources and industry is demanding low-cost bio-based protein formulations with better performance and higher sustainability. Current protein demand for the 7.3 billion inhabitants of the world is approximately 202 Mt. Due to the rise in meat consumption more proteins are therefore required for animal feeding. To satisfy the current protein demand, Europe imports over 30 Mt of soy from the Americas each year mainly for animal feeding, entailing 95% dependency of EU on imported soy. Current sources of proteins are becoming unsustainable from an economic and environmental perspective for Europe resulting in concerns for sustainability and food security and leading to search for new alternative proteins. ALEHOOP addresses the obtaining of proteins from green macroalgal blooms, brown seaweed by-products from algae processors and legume processing by-products (peas, lupines, beans and lentils) as alternative protein sources for animal feeding (case of green seaweed) and food applications (case of brown seaweed and legume by-products), since they are low cost and under-exploited biomass that do not compete with traditional food crops for space and resources. This will reduce EU´s dependency on protein imports and contribute to our raw material security. The new proteins will be validated in foods for elderly, sporty and overweight people, vegetarians and healthy consumers as well as for animal feed creating cross-sectorial interconnection between these value chains and supporting the projected business plan.

The EcoPROLIVE project proposes an innovative processing for the full exploitation of high valuable constituents in the olive into novel products that are healthy and greener. The proposed process is very different from the current approaches of olive oil industrial production, and waste revalorization alternatives, as it follows a “zero waste” approach and all resulting products have commercial value. Part of the process is based on the patent WO2013030426 with further developments for quality and environmental improvements, such as the use of supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) with CO2 instead of n-hexane extraction, and including pulsed electric field (PEF) technology to improve the drying performance and the oil extraction yields. EcoPROLIVE project goals are: demonstration of the technical and economical feasibility of the processing and its environmental study; ensuring the market uptake of the technology and novel products, fully characterized (nutritional, functional, toxicological) to avoid market barriers; design of the optimal process, and scale-up from lab/pilot plant to preindustrial application (TRL6); validation at an operational environment (TRL7); monetizing the technology and developed process (patents) into scalable markets and replication in different scales and countries, starting with the main olive oil producers represented in the consortium (Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal). Replication is expected in a total of 504 olive oil mills, that will deliver 37,000 tn olive oil, 3,700 tn functional oil (hydroxytyrosol, tyrosol, oleocanthal, oleuropein, others), and 44,400 tn phenol-rich fibre ingredient with intended use in bakery products (biscuit, bread). The global estimated profit is high (63 Mll€) as well as the environmental benefit associated to waste reduction (126,100 tn waste water). Conclusively EcoPROLIVE processing is presented as an economically and environmentally sustainable innovation that will promote the sector competitiveness.

The EMBEDED project aims to demonstrate alternative business models in 36 months by transforming waste from Europe traditional agrifood industries into biochar and construction boards, with a long-term carbon sink effect and short resilient value chains. The validation of the km.0 application of biochar on primary producer plantations and the regional market characterization will be conducted. Valorisation streams aim to combine marginal revenues from mainstream residues (olive pomace, olive stones, grape mark) with overlooked or underutilised ones (cork bark left on field, press-cake from fresh grass, grape stems), with five demonstration pilots planned in Portugal, Ireland, Spain, and Czech Republic. Four of the pilots will have pyrolysis for the manufacture of biochar, using a modular method that fits pre- and post-conditioning phases into a single-maned portable unit. In two of the pilots, extractive methods aimed at bio-active chemicals will be evaluated to determine the added benefit of a cascade valorisation. Using a modular but stationary pilot, the Board production plant will capitalize on the cork outputs geographical. The consortium comprises 14 participants, comprising 5 SMEs and 1 LE that includes 2 technological developers and many influential figures in the agri-food industry of each designated region. In order to implement technology replications and technical transfer using the multi-actor strategy, the EMBEDED project will use 15% of the requested grant (750 k€) as financial support.

The UP4HEALTH project provides the demonstration at pre-industrial scale of an INTEGRATED BIOREFINERY for the recovery of valuable biomolecules from food processing by-products and their conversion into natural, healthy and sustainable high added-value products for the NUTRACEUTICALS and COSMETIC sectors. UP4HEALTH ingredients will be of suitable quality to meet market requirements of CONSUMERS and INDUSTRY in these sectors: consumers are demanding functional natural products and industry is demanding bio-based formulations for better performance and higher sustainability. Olive and grape by-products are underexploited residual biomass rich in bioactive compounds, resulting in a great market opportunity for the UP4HEALTH project. Although existing technologies are promising for the recovery of high added-value ingredients inside the food chain, products from the valorisation of food by-products are still rather limited in the market. The main challenge is to validate an appropriate business model for the affordable upgrading at large scale of a wide variety in composition of by-products from the food processing industry, overcoming bottlenecks like logistic issues and investment costs. UP4HEALTH upcycling process integrates a unique ZERO WASTE sustainable process for 4 locally available Mediterranean feedstocks from food processing (olive pomace, grape pomace, nut by-products and olive pits) to deliver 4 ORGANIC, NATURAL, SUSTAINABLE & HEALTHY INGREDIENTS: natural fruit water rich in polyphenols, polyphenol-rich dietary fibre, fruit natural oily extracts and prebiotic Xylooligosaccharides. UP4HEALTH ingredients will be integrated intofunctional food, nutraceutical supplements and cosmetics, targeting a wide niche population. The remaining solid fraction from the hydrolysis of the olive pits is intended to be used for energy production responding to the concept of BIOREFINERY, since biomass will be processed into a spectrum of bio-based products and bioenergy.