In this case, cross-border collaboration will take place between wineries and research centres in France, Spain and Portugal, combining their specialities to make better use of lignocellulosic waste (LCW) generated in the wine sector. All wineries in the SUDOE area face the challenge of improving their competitiveness in a global market and their resilience to crises.
The ECOLAB PILOT2 project seeks to address this problem from two perspectives:
a) Obtaining a small quantity of high-value products from LCR.
b) Obtaining a large quantity of lower-value products from LCR.
In addition, the aim is to use various types of processing methods, optimised to maximise the production of valuable components, while minimising waste streams and converting the required amount of lower-value components into energy or ecological fertilisers. In this case, the actions will include:
1. Estimating the potential of different types of wine RLCs, both for the development of innovative and differentiable renewable products and for energy production (biogas). The information collected will lay the foundations for scaling up the systems in the future.
2. Establishing the best methods/conditions for separating/fractionating the compounds of interest from these wine RLCs.
3. Develop formulations and bioproducts from the different fractions of RLC, especially for pharmaceutical and food applications (e.g. lignin nanoparticles, active films and hydrogels with anti-inflammatory and/or antibacterial activity, bioink). These actions will promote the use of available resources by promoting eco-efficiency within the framework of a circular economy.
