FISCH4 – Fish Feed from Food Waste

Food waste represents a large fraction of total produced bio-waste and is composed of raw or cooked food materials generated before, during or after food preparation. It includes vegetable peelings, dairy leftovers products, meat trimmings, and spoiled or excess ingredients or prepared food.. Although EU measures intend to prevent the wastage of food, waste treatment processes, such as Anaerobic Digestion (AD), are necessary to handle non-edible food waste. Implementation of AD for treating food waste in Europe has increased at a large pace. The overall objective of FISCH4 is the demonstration of a novel biotechnological process that converts food waste (especially of plant and dairy origin) into fish feed ingredients, using unpurified biogas (CH4, CO2, H2S) as intermediate. The two step process involves: (i) anaerobic digestion of food waste for biogas production, with a focus on process application and not on fundamental research and, (ii) biogas conversion by mixed methanotrophic/ heterotrophic/sulfidotrophic biomass (here referred as mixed biomass – MB), using unpurified biogas containing CO2, CH4 and H2S and the liquid fraction of the anaerobic digester effluent, as source of carbon, energy and nutrients (Figure 1). Although the methanotrophic reactor will be designed and operated to maximize the utilization of methane from the biogas, applying e.g. high pressure and biogas recirculation, there will be a fraction of remaining biogas that can be used for energy production. The concept is envisaged for large-scale biogas plants where the biogas and the liquid effluent can be pumped to a separate industrial unit for MB production. Biogas remaining unused in the biological process will be used for electricity/biomethane production after upgrading. The co-production of energy will be evaluated through energy balances that will assess the possibility of turning the process energetically self-sufficient. Economic viability; environmental performance, including, but not limited to, low greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over the complete life cycle (LC), and social acceptability, the three sets of criteria usually recognized as the tests for sustainability, will be assessed in the project.
FISCH4 consortium gathers expertise on biotechnological processes, biogas processes, microbiology, food quality and safety, aquaculture and fisheries and environmental social and economic life cycle assessment. The consortium of 7 academic and 4 SME from 6 European countries and one participant from India has the scientific, technical and management expertise to promote an efficient transfer of lab-scale results into a novel industrial product that will contribute for the development of the EU sustainable economy.
Figure 1