The ENGICOIN project started in January 2018 and will last 60 months. The core R&D activities are divided in two progressive phases with increasing TRL levels, from TRL3 to TRL5.
Currently, the project is on the conclusion of the last phase of R&D development which is mainly focused on TRL5 pilot plant testing campaign.
The first phase, mainly focused on microbial chassis design and improvement, was closed almost at the end of the second RP. In-fact, to make the production competitive on a market scale ENGICOIN partners worked on microorganism modification to increase CO2 capture and conversion ability. Synthetic and systems biology studies was performed to increase the CO2 uptake as substrate as well as its fast and selective transformation into the desired products or to facilitate product extraction. At the same time, a new Alkaline electrolyser for H2 production and integration with MF2 and MF3 was developed. All these R&D activities was performed in accordance with the original plan.
Moreover, in view of the final in-field validation (phase 3), the basic site preparation activities have been carried out including the design of the validation site and experimental campaign as well as the feedstocks and services distribution lines deployment and the development of protocols to extract organic substrates from the AD digestate which will be utilized as complementary carbon substrates for the Microbial Factories.
The objectives related to the last phase of the project regards the TRL 5 validation tests, data monitoring, and to products, microorganisms, materials & plants durability assessment. During the last period, the partners provided all facilities on the platform to run the prototype. Electric power, water, CO2 inlet streams, connection to waste water system and data network are present on the platform, following specification required by the project. Experimental trials on TRL5 were conducted in the prescribed real environment: results on MF1 production showed that Synechocystis can grow and produce LA by using as carbon source both concentrated CO2 (coming from the biogas upgrading system) and waste gas streams (from cogeneration units). An experimental trial was performed also on MF2, showing that the C. Necator is able to grow and produce PHB by using as carbon source both concentrated CO2 and flue gas. Also the PHB extraction Bio-process performed by B.Bacteriovorus was tested at TRL5 level, showing good results in terms of PHB extraction and feasibility of the continuous process.
