Re­cy­cling plastic and de­ve­lo­ping hy­brid li­ving ma­te­ri­als by cap­tu­ring green­house gases to pro­du­ce value-​added pro­ducts - RE­PLA­CER

Pro­ject sum­ma­ry

Ra­tio­na­le: Cli­ma­te chan­ge, plastic pol­lu­ti­on, and food in­se­cu­ri­ty are exis­ten­ti­al th­re­ats and pose tre­men­dous chal­len­ges to Eu­ro­pe and the world. Fin­ding sus­tain­able so­lu­ti­ons are chal­len­ging. Ob­jec­ti­ves: The RE­PLA­CER pro­ject ad­dres­ses these chal­len­ges by com­bi­ning the ad­van­ta­ges of the li­ving and non-​living worlds to de­ve­lop hy­brid li­ving ma­te­ri­als (HLMs) and en­able sus­tain­able pro­duc­tion of feed pro­te­ins. Po­ten­ti­al ap­p­li­ca­ti­ons: Key ap­p­li­ca­ti­ons in­clu­de a new car­bon cap­tu­re and uti­liza­ti­on (CCU) con­cept, HLM-​based bio­re­ac­tor pro­to­ty­pes from re­cy­cled PET, and mi­cro­bi­al pro­te­ins pro­du­ced from green­house gases (GHGs) as a source of ani­mal feed. Im­pact and po­ten­ti­al be­ne­fits: The com­mer­cia­li­sa­ti­on of the con­cept will con­tri­bu­te: a) cap­tu­ring GHGs and sup­por­ting EU's GHG emis­si­on re­duc­tion tar­gets, b) re­cy­cling plastic and sup­por­ting the Eu­ropean Green Deal and the Cir­cu­lar Eco­no­my Ac­tion Plan, c) pro­du­cing mi­cro­bi­al pro­te­ins and re­du­cing EU’s de­pen­den­cy on soy pro­te­in im­port.