On 24 and 25 November 2022, the project partners of INGREEN met for the final Steering Committee meeting. This consortium meeting was hosted by AVECOM in Ghent, Belgium. We looked back at 3,5 years of successful collaboration in which the predefined objectives and more were achieved.
In short, the project goals were as followed:
- Obtain at least 20% more value from the project side-stream feedstocks than state-of-the-art methods. INGREEN managed to scale up the waste streams used to produce ingredients on the order of 100 kg.
- Create new cross-sector interconnections in the bio-based economy. INGREEN specifically got companies from the dairy, biochemistry, pharma, food and feed sectors to work together.
- Set the basis for new bio-based value chains. INGREEN accomplished this by demonstrating the potential for new value chains from whey, wheat and rye bran, and paper milling wastewater side streams.
- Demonstrate consumer products based on bio-based chemicals and materials that meet market requirements. In the INGREEN project, successful prototypes for bread, functional cheese, cosmetics, nutraceuticals, and medical products were developed.
The consortium proudly reflected on their collaboration in which they contributed to the circular bio-economy by increasing the know-how to produce new bio-based ingredients from side streams. The knowledge gained in the project was shared in presentations at scientific conferences and other dissemination events. In the coming months, more information will be shared in scientific articles published in high-impact journals. On the more commercial side, exploitation plans were made to ensure that the newly developed products are launched on the market.
The success of INGREEN is mainly due to the great group of project partners from around Europe and their enthusiastic collaboration. This network of scientists, industry and stakeholders is already looking to renew their collaboration in new EU projects to further develop biotechnology and accelerate the growth of the circular economy.
