End users from four municipalities – two in Spain and another two in the Moravia-Silesia region of Czechoslovakia – will create a consortium to transform diluted urban bio-waste into sustainable bio-products including cosmetics, fertilisers, packaging and self-repairing construction materials. DEEP PURPLE will set up and implement at a single site the first Purple Phototropic Bacteria biorefinery in the EU. Targeted to be the largest in the world, this production chain will have a processing capacity of 422 tonnes per year (t/y) of OFMSW. This will engage communities to create new value and new opportunities, reduce landfill, raise solids recovery to 71 % and replace current polluting practices.

This revolutionary concept will be implemented in a novel Single-Site Multi-Platform Concept (Biomass, Cellulose and Biogas) to replace current polluting destructive practices with new value added concepts.

The beneficial use of bio-waste is obtained by an innovative combination of optimised recovery technologies and novel solutions – the Purple Phototrophic Bacteria (PPB) PhotoBiorefinery. The use of PPB – the most versatile metabolism reported – ensures the adaption to fluctuating and diluted waste streams to support a stable and profitable production chain. The first PPB PhotoBiorefinery in the EU (the biggest worldwide) will be validated in different environmental, economic, logistic and social scenarios.

The market uptake of DEEP PURPLE is facilitated by optimal logistics of bio-wastes conversion (reduction of landfilled OFMSW: 60 %; WWTP, solids recovery: 71 %), and bio-products quality to favour their commercialisation (440 t/y). The integration of value chains is boosted by relevant stakeholder’s participation and innovative business models, minimising waste and maximising benefits (€ 85 million benefits, GHG emissions savings: 11 300 tCO2eq/y in 2025). Key communities (social engagement strategies) will participate in the new value creation, calibrating the returns of the project like social innovation promotion and creation of new opportunities along the urban value cycle.

DEEP PURPLE aims to establish new interconnections between companies and other sectors to build new value chains. These will feature actors that have not previously worked together in a value chain and is likely to see cooperation between waste management companies and those in the fields of packaging, construction, fertilisers and cosmetics.

Furthermore, it will develop five new bio-based value chains which will involve developing industrial symbiosis models between municipal waste managers and end users in three different sectors. The project is relevant to cities and regions that are working on a Circular Systemic Solution that focuses on bioeconomy and urban waste valorisation achieved by establishing collaborations between different value chains and sectors.

Programme:

• H2020-EU.2.1.4. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies – Biotechnology

Topic:

• BBI.2018.SO1.D2 - Find solutions to dilution, pollution and content diversity challenges to turn mixed urban bio-waste (1) into sustainable feedstock for the bio-based industry

FCC Aqualia SA
Contact the project

• Activatec Ltd
• RNB
• S.L
• Natureplast SAS
• Instituto Tecnologico del Embalaje
• Transporte y Logistica; Brunel University London
• Novamont SPA
• Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
• Alchemia-Nova Research & Innovation Gemeinnutzige GmbH
• Asociacion Espanola de Normalizacion
• Investornet-Gate2growth APA
• Universidad de Valladolid
• Agro Innovation International
• FCC Medio Ambiente SAU