Recycling and Valorization of Waste Materials
Closing the loop: new value chains inspired by the marine biorefinery concept.
All along the value chain of marine products, the different transformations undergone by the product generate waste that is usually disposed of. Finding a new life for materials that are nowadays considered waste is a key path to real sustainability.
The Recycling & Valorization of Waste Materials (ReVal) research group works to develop, optimize and scale new processes designed to provide new value to effluents and by-products from different food industry sectors, such as the marine, aquaculture and fisheries sectors or the agri-food industry.
To do this, the group is inspired by the concept of ‘marine biorefinery’. This concept seeks to optimize the number and quality of products that can be produced out of marine organic materials. Gelatins, cartilage, fish protein hydrolysates, marine peptones, chondroitin sulfate, chitin derivatives and bioapatite are only some of the added-value products that the group is able to collect.
In addition, the potential of microorganisms to produce biotechnological compounds is a key tool for ReVal: they can be used in bioconversion processes to produce probiotics, bacteriocins, lactic acid, enzymes, astaxanthin or hyaluronic acid in different procedures and types of operations, also optimising the separation-purification stages of microbial metabolites.
Another leap towards sustainability, driven by the group’s experimentation with microorganisms, is microbial bioremediation of oil spills in marine environments. The group investigates the application of dispersants and coastal cleaning agents to remove oil adhered to rock surfaces, a remediation measure that can be applied in ecotoxicologically and environmentally safe conditions.
Additionally, the group investigates the application of mathematical modelling, both mechanistic and empirical, to different strategies related to chemical and biological processes. Based on their thorough knowledge of the interactions and transformations within a system, the group can model enzymatic, microbial and animal growth and bioactive responses, as well as complex dose-response relationships.
