NNFCC was a project
partner in DAFIA, a 4-year project that concluded in December 2020. DAFIA was a
collaborative research project involving 15 institutes from across Europe, funded
by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme under grant agreement No
720770.
The main objective
of the DAFIA project was to obtain value-added products from two unusual
feedstocks: municipal solid waste (MSW) and marine rest raw materials (MRRM).
Specifically, DAFIA used the organic fraction of MSW as a feedstock for
fermentation (to industrial chemicals), and used residues from the
fish-processing industries (including salmon skins and backbones) to extract food
ingredients. The industrial chemicals produced via biotechnology in DAFIA were
adipid acid, muconic acid and 1,5-pentanediamine, which were subsequently used in
DAFIA to make biobased polyamide and speciality monomers. Fish residues were
used as a reagent to make biobased flame retardant, which was then blended with
various biobased polyamides. Food-grade fish-processing residues were used to extract
gelatine, which was used to make food coatings and food packaging.
NNFCC’s
main role in the DAFIA project was to produce exploitation plans for the most
promising results. NNFCC maintained an overview of the key exploitable results
as the project progressed, and identified the main hurdles to reaching
commercial exploitation of results. Market research was caried out on the
products being developed in DAFIA. NNFCC conducted in-depth market research on biobased
polyamides, as well as on two biobased monomers, muconic acid and
1,5-pentanediamine. NNFCC also conducted market research on biobased flame
retardants and reviewed partners business plans. NNFCC produced a business plan
for a hypothetical business converting salmon-processing residues into food and
personal-care products like gelatine, taste-neutral protein and fish oil. This
included market and supply-chain insights into the aquaculture and fish-processing
industries.
Overall,
NNFCC enjoyed the opportunity to work on such a diverse range of biobased
products and processes. Exploitation of DAFIA results are still ongoing, and it
will be exciting to see how the results of the project are further exploited in
the coming years.