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QLK3-1999-00004
Enhanced, intelligent processing of food and related wastes using thermo-philic populations (INTELLTHERMCONTROL)
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Contacts
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Quality of Life - 3. The Cell Factory
| Contract No: |
QLK3-1999-00004 |
| Project Type: |
RS (Research and Technological Development Project)
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| Start Date: |
01-02-2000
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| Duration: |
48 months
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| Total Cost: |
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| EC Contribution: |
1 414 358 EUR
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| Scientific Officer: |
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Abstract
This project is aimed at improving the viability and environmental sustainability of the
European food industry, by using thermophilic microbial "cell factories" combined with
knowledge-based control to achieve safer, cleaner, more energy-efficient bioremediation
of the vast volumes of wastes produced. We shall achieve this by: a) developing generic
knowledge-based protocols for thermophilic process design and operation; b) combining
these protocols with advanced microbiological and process analysis and control techniques to
operate bio-reactors containing thermophilic bioprocesses for the pathogen-free treatment of food
industry and related wastes, with maximal energy recovery. The outcome will be industrially tested
Knowledge-Based Control System software.
Objectives
- To develop a Knowledge-Based Control System containing generic knowledge-based
protocols for the design and operation of robust and versatile processes to transform complex waste
streams, using "cell factories" of thermophilic populations of microorganisms.
- To utilise means of advanced microbiological and process analysis and control to assist this
protocol development and its use in the operation and evaluation of thermophilic, mixed-population
bioprocesses for the pathogen-free treatment of food industry and related wastes, with maximal
energy recovery, in a variety of reactors.
Description of the work
- A number of food and related waste-waters/streams of significance for European
environmental sustainability will be selected as feed materials. Their main components will be
analysed and their biodegradability characterised.
- A mixed-species thermophilic microbial population will be supplied by one of the partners
for use throughout the project. This will be characterised, in terms both of its microbial species
and of the "key" substrates, intermediates, and products involved in the various stages of the
treatment process for each selected feed material, and their fluxes, using carbon flux analysis,
flow cytometry, and other advanced techniques, and the results incorporated into a knowledge base.
- The thermophilic population will be used to convert the wastes in both stirred-tank
reactors and a novel cocurrent gas-liquid reactor. The biodegradation performances of both
types of reactor will be studied, to yield data for the knowledge base and subsequent process
modelling, and the potential for "engineered" species balances assessed.
- Predictive process models of various levels of complexity will be developed, assessed,
incorporated into a "model base", and further used to develop knowledge-based control
schemes and protocols to achieve robust, "optimal" populations and performance for the
treatment of each waste.
- The knowledge and model bases will be combined with the control strategies and
protocols into a Knowledge-Based Control System for thermophilic biotreatment of waste-waters.
Deliverables
The outcome of the project will be a software-based system for improved control
and operation of thermophilic processes for food industry bioremediation, incorporating knowledge
of the behaviour of microbial populations, and tested on a range of industrial waste-waters
of importance throughout Europe. The protocol of the system will be adaptable for use with
other populations and processes, thus making it one of a new generation of "generic" advanced
control and management systems.
Contacts
Coordinator
Participant
