Tailored Solutions to convert biomass into

value-added products AKA

Total Exploitation of Agri-Food Chain

Co-products and Biomass

Keith Waldron

NRP Biorefinery Centre

Institute of Food Research

Sustainability issue No 1 • Climate change will:

– Reduce land availability

– Reduce water availability

– Change seasonal temperatures

• Addressing climate change will require us to: – Address carbon footprint of food chain at all stages

• Fertilizers

• Transport

• processing

– Use carbon-neutral alternatives to fossil fuels

• Energy crops instead of crops for food will put pressure on the

global food supply

Sustainability issue No 2

• Continued increase in population will result in increased demand for natural resources – Land

– Water

– Energy

– Food

• World Bank predicts

– global demand for food will rise by 50% by 2030, (for meat by 85%) and by 100% by 2050.

Sustainability and Waste

• Making better use of resources is going to

become more pressing

• There will be increased pressure to avoid a

food-fuel conflict

• There will be increasing pressures and

opportunities to make use of biomass-

waste

Overview

• Examples of high value components

from agri-food chain wastes

• Exploitation of residues – High quality growing media as a peat replacement

– Conversion of lignocellulose to fuels and

chemicals

• Where Next?

Waste from the Food Chain

Processing

waste

Field Waste

Product

Transport, Retail

More transport

More storage

Ingested

food

Agronomy

Consumer

Municipal

Waste

Seed

Packaging waste

Out of

spec / date waste

Crop

Storage,

transport

& Processing

“BIOREFINERY” Concept

Stabilised

Co-product

Organic

Waste

Material

HIGH VALUE

Nutriceuticals

Cosmetics

Food & feed

Additives

Feed Additives

Including fish

Feed

Non-food uses

e.g.

biodegradable

Packaging etc

Composting

% energy use

LOW

VALUE

Ind

ustria

l an

d c

on

su

mer p

latfo

rms

RE

CO

VE

RY

Breakdown

and

fractionation

HACCP

Feedback process Consumer+retailor acceptance RISK assessment

Adding Value to Waste Co-products

Adding Value to Waste Co-products

Faulds et al 2010.

Traditional approach e.g. FAIR CT96-1184

Conversion of

Environmentally-unfriendly Onion waste

into Food ingredients

Institute of Food Research (UK)

University Autonoma de Madrid (Spain)

Herbstreith and Fox (Germany)

ATO [Wageningen University] (Netherlands)

TOP (Netherlands)

Onion waste: The Problem

400,000 tonnes grown in UK (1999) 160,000 tonnes peeled 57,600 tonnes = waste - disposed of – much by landfill

In UK: 600,000 consumption

Allium cepa L. Vegetable, prized for its flavour, aroma. Medicinal qualities. Rich in quercetin, an antioxidant

> 500,000 tonnes of onion waste produced annually in Europe

Industrial peeling of onions

Top n’ tail

Blast with air

Score vertically Outer papery scales (brown)

+ outer fleshy scales (grey)

removed

Inner fleshy scales

Retained for further

processing

Onion peel Waste

White tissues

Crude Pulp

Instant

thickener

Evaluated Food Additives

TDF/IDF

Flavours

+ FOS

+ sugars

Supplemented Foods

Flavours

Sweet onion

juice

Possible process stream

Brown tissues

Brown IDF

finely ground

Low -

viscosity

SDF White

IDF

Instant-thickening agent from onion waste

Waldron K, Useful ingredients from onion waste. Food Sci Technol (2001).

SIXTH FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME PRIORITY [5]

SPECIFIC TARGETED RESEARCH OR INNOVATION PROJECT

REDUCING FOOD PROCESSING WASTE Proposal/Contract no.: 006922

Keith W. Waldron (Coordinator; Institute of Food Research, UK)

1) BSG-supplemented snacks: Stojceska, V. et al., (2008) J. Food. Eng. Stojceska, V. et al., (2008) J. Cereal. Sci. Stojceska, V. et al., (2009) Food Chem.

Development and design of (3) full processing streams

2) Vegetable Trimmings valorisation: Colourant (from red cabbage) Low-methoxy, high molecular weight pectin

•Panouille, et. Al., (2006) F. Agric Food Chem.

Functional polymer fragments and/or dietary fibre.

•Zykwinska, et al., (2008) J. Agric. Food Chem.

3) BSG liquefaction and valorisation: Carbohydrate-degrading enzymes alone Combination processes

By-product

• Microbiologically compromised

• Difficult mixtures •Contain meat and veg/fruit

• Insufficient economies of scale

• Untraceable

Composting Bio-alcohol

High value, patented outputs

residue

Professional Growers:

•Increasing requirement for horticultural growing media

•EU Wetlands Directive

•Consumer and retailer pressure

•Poor quality / unsuitable peat alternatives

Food processors

•Large quantities of organic, plant-based waste

•Pressure from EU landfill directive / UK landfill tax

The Problem: Sustainability*

Growing-media manufacturers and

composters:

•Paucity of knowledge of functional criteria of peat

•Paucity of understanding of composting process

*Margaret Becket’s speech at opening of

CSD meeting, 28th April, 2003

Developing a peat replacement

Waste

Stream

HQ

GM Co-product provision

Composting And Processing

Plant Trials Tailoring of Media

Madestein

Ltd

Required characteristics of a growing

medium

• Water holding and drainage

• Blendable

• Handling quality (e.g. cohesiveness)

• Defined nitrogen and nutrient status

Why is peat a good growing medium?

Somerset

Sedge H7-8

Ballycommon

H4-5

Latvian

Blonde

H2-3

Why is peat a good growing medium?

Why is composted material different

from “peat”?

Str

uctu

re

0% Time

Controlling the Composting Time Line

100%

What happens during composting?

• In Vessel composting: using the bespoke COBRA I and II

• Specific ‘windrow’ trials – generally in the order of 16 tonnes

Sources of plant waste

• Cereal Wastes monocot, cross-linked,

analogous to sedge

• Vegetable and fruit

wastes dicot, closer to parenchyma cells

of mosses

Waste streams included:

Stockbridge Violas

Blocking media

Characterising the Growing Media for

basis of functionality

Industry-standard physical properties

• Moisture retention

• Water potential

• pH

• electrical conductivity

• Bulk density

• dry bulk density

• Air-filled porosity

• Particle size distribution

102.050.39

IMPACT

Output – ability to measure and control (using SI units) the key physical parameters that

determine the quality of growing media from composted food chain co-products.

2 patents granted: GB2445560 and US 8,361,171B2

Publication Waldron, K.W., Moates, G.K., Merali, S.R.A., Collins, D.R., Wilson, T.F., Brocklehurst, T.F., Bragg, N.C., and

Carter, S. (2013). Retaining cell wall structure in producing quality composts to replace peat as growing media.

Acta Hort. 1013: 181-188.

Most promising Innovator of 2011

New DEFRA project starts 1st December 2014

Biorefining on the Norwich Research Park

Keith Waldron

The Biorefinery Centre

Institute of Food Research, Norwich

biomass

distillation

bioalcohol

Simplified scheme for ethanol production from biomass

Pretreatment Available cellulose

hydrolysis sugars

fermentation alcohol

•Steam explosion

•Extrusion

•Acid/alkali

•Temperature

•Milling

•Hot solvent

•etc

•Hot acid

•Enzymatic

•Thermophilic?

•Multi enzyme

•Combination?

•Glucose

•Xylose

•Arabinose

•Uronic acid

•etc.

Problem of inhibitors

•Lignin

•Enzyme inhibitors

•Product and

metabolite inhibition

Range of fermenting

micro-organisms

•Yeasts

•Bacteria

Distillation or membrane technologies

10 x 5 x 2 x 2 x 3 x 2 = 1200 permutations (non-optimised)

Academic partners (Environment for invention)

LIGNO-

CELLULOSE BIO-

ALCOHOL

Selection and

categorisation

Digestion and

Release of sugars

And oligosaccharides

Fermentation &

separation

Research programme: Environment for invention and innovation

FEEDBACK

CHAIN INTEGRATION

Task 3: Further

saccharification and

Fermentation

MEEP

Industrial

Bio-alcohol

Task 1: Supply and

characterise

Lignocellulosic co-

products

Provision of industrial

wastes optimising

combustion

Task 4:

Evaluation of

Combustion

Industrial partners (environment for exploitation)

Task 2: Cell wall

disassembly

depolymerisation and

saccharification

Industrial

enzymes

Pre

treatment

HOOCH

Residue

Exploitation

Films and

Barriers Prebiotics

Bioactive

Polysaccharides

Conversion to

fuels and

chemicals

Biomass

Improvement Society and

Environment

Straw: 500g

10% Ethanol

750-800ml

Ethanol 75-80ml

High torque

bioreactor

Elliston A., Faulds C. B., Roberts I. N., Waldron K. W. (2014)

Biorefining of waste paper biomass: Increasing the concentration of glucose by optimising

enzymatic hydrolysis at high substrate loads

Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology 172 3621-3634

Elliston A., Collins S. R. A., Wilson D. R., Roberts I. N., Waldron K. W. (2013)

High concentrations of cellulosic ethanol achieved by fed batch semi simultaneous saccharification

and fermentation of waste-paper.

Bioresource Technology 134 117-126

Ian Wood

Variation in wheat straw biomass IBTI project in coordinated by Ian Bancroft, one project in JIC, another project at IFR

Wheat Cultivars ACCESS COURTOT HOLDFAST MULTIWEISS SOISSONS

ALBA DEBEN HUMBER NAUTICA SOLSTICE

ALBATROSS EINSTEIN HUSTLER NORMAN SPARK

ALCHEMY EQUINOX HYBRID-46 OAKLEY SPERBER

AMBROSIA ERLA-KOLBEN HYPERION OBELISK STAMM 101

APACHE,USA ESCORIAL ISTABRAQ ORLANDO STARKE2

AVALON ETOILE-DE-CHOISY KAVKAZ PALUR STEADFAST

BACANORA EXSEPT KONTRAST PARAGON SVALE

BATTALION EXTREM LEDA PERLO TADORNA

BEAVER FANAL LONGBOW PIKO TARAS

BOREONOS FLAIR MALACCA RABE,DEU TREMIE

BUSTER FLAME MARCO RECITAL TRINTELLA

CALIF FLORIDA MARIS-HUNTSMAN RENASANSA TSCHERMAKS

CAPELLE-DESPREZ GALAHAD MARIS-WIDGEON RIALTO VILMORIN-27

CAPO GATSBY MEGA RIBAND VIRGO

CEZANNE GLADIATOR MENDEL RIMPAUS-BRAUN VIRTUE

CHARGER GLASGOW MERCIA SAVANNAH WEEBIL

CLAIRE HAVEN MIRAS SCHWEIGERS-TACA WERLA

CONSORT HEREWARD MIRONOVSKA SHAMROCK XI19

CORDIALE HOBBIT MUCK SHANGO ZEBEDEE

FTIR spectra of wheat tissues

Collins et al (2014) Biotechnology for BIofuels.

Milling to <250um

PLS modelling

Correlation table

Collins et al (2014) Biotechnology for BIofuels.

Impact of tissue ratios on chemical

compositions

Collins et al (2014) Biotefchnology for BIofuels.

Variation in composition of cell wall

sugars in tissues of 6 wheat cultivars

CONCLUSIONS

• PLS models to rapidly quantify 90 CV

wheat tissues and chemistry

• Chemistry is predominantly influenced by

relative levels of tissues (stem and leaf)

• Within tissues, carbohydrate chemistry is

CONSERVED!

Bioethanol from oilseed rape straw:

moving towards commercial viability

by exploiting cultivar variation.

Ian Wood

Ryden P., et al. (2014) Changes in the composition of the main polysaccharide

groups of oil seed rape straw following steam explosion and saccharification. Biomass

and Bioenergy 61 121-130

Wood I. P., et al (2014) Steam explosion of oilseed rape straw: Establishing key

determinants of saccharification efficiency Bioresource Technology 162 175–183

• OSR straw poorly utilised

• 27-37% glc

• Heterogeneous cell walls

• Saccharification affected

by wall composition

• Cellulase binding

AIM • For OSR straw – to understand

the relationships between:

• Pretreatment severity

• Substrate chemical

composition

• Efficiency of cellulase binding

and hydrolysis

1) Compositions of Oilsreed Rape Straw and liquor as a function

of pretreatment severity

Pretreatment Temperature

Composition of OSR straw biomass

before and after pretreatments

2) % reducing sugars (grey bars) and free

glucose (black bars) yields following enzymatic

saccharification of steam exploded OSR straw

(Low substrate concentration, High enzyme concentration)

3) Protein binding to OSR straw as a function of pretreatment severity

untreated

230C

180C

4) Saccharification yields of untreated and steam

exploded OSR straw over a range of severities

untreated untreated

180C 180C

230C 230C

5) Enzymatic Hydrolysis of unmilled (black) and milled (white) steam exploded

OSR straw hydrolysed at 1% substrate (dwt) with excess cellulase (36 FPU/g)_

Correlations and associations

Cell wall

chemistry

Enzyme

binding

Initial

hydrolysis

rates

Plateau

points

2ry hydro-

Lysis rates

Linear correlations between key hydrolysis parameters and

compositional and enzymatic variables for pretreated OSR

straw

Linear correlations between key hydrolysis parameters and

compositional and enzymatic variables for pretreated OSR

straw

Summary of results

• Initial hydrolysis rate is:

– Correlated with initial enzyme binding rate

– limited by the amount of pectic uronic

acids remaining

• The proportion of rapidly hydrolysable

carbohydrate is:

– positively correlated with lignin abundance

• Final sugar yield is:

– closely related to xylan removal

Some Implications

• 1) Advanced breeding programmes to

tailor biomass composition

• 2) Re-assessment of the role of “lignin”

purely as a cause of recalcitrance

• 3) Tailored enzymes for

saccharification to include focus on

pectinases for dicot biomass Wood et al (2014) Bioresource Technology

100 litre pilot

WHERE NEXT: chemicals from yeasts

• UK's premier collection of yeast cultures

• over 4000 strains collected over 50 years

• large collections of brewing yeast, genetically-defined

yeast (used in many applications including cancer

research), yeast associated with food spoilage and yeast

of medical and industrial importance.

• Robotic screening

systems

• Small, medium, large

scale digestion and

fermentation facilities

(Biorefinery)

Where do yeasts in the NCYC collection originate from?

NCYC 2254: Sugar factory

NCYC 2895: Hibiscus flower

NCYC 582: Strawberry juice

NCYC 2493: Nematode worm

NCYC 2610: Fish paste

NCYC 3788: Guava plant

NCYC 3064: Apple skin

NCYC 2869: Insect frass

NCYC 3729: Banana

NCYC 3264: Lici fruit

NCYC 3391: Seawater

NCYC 546: Fruit fly

Antarctic Yeast

• Yeast isolates sent to NCYC for

identification

• Growth temperature testing at

25°C and 1°C

• Cultures are pink and mucoid

• Synthesises carotenoid pigment

• Potential industrial applications

e.g. low temperature

biochemistry and/or source of UV

protectant molecules

Scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of a

yeast recovered from a glacier ice sample

Rhodotorula isolates grown at 1°C for 3 weeks on YM agar

http://biorefinerycentre.ifr.ac.uk/

Acknowledgements • Ian Wood

• Sam Collins

• David Wilson

• Graham Moates

• Adam Elliston

• Peter Ryden

• Henri Tapp

• Klaus Wellner

• Zara Merali

• Xin Zhao

• Ian Roberts

• Jo Dicks

• Ian Bancroft

• Andrea Harper

• David Boxer

• David Richardson

• BBSRC

• Defra

• Innovate UK

• EEDA

• EU