Concept & Methodology

REDWine implements an innovative business model, aligned under the European agricultural framework program, where wine producers will become microalgae producers. The objective is that wine producers could valorize their wastes, rather than spending money for its disposal, allowing them to install REDWine technologies that provide higher profitability and market diversification. REDWine business model is designed to knit together independent wine producers sharing services and operational processing technologies through scale economies; joint acquisition of inputs, as well as extend to support and funding opportunities.

REDWine will validate the concept of utilizing wine fermentation off-gas for microalgae production in one of the AVIPE associates, the Adega Cooperativa de Palmela. A gas production of 12.5 L/L must/day operation cycle of a 6 days batch results in a total of 1,200,000L (or 2.2 ton) of off-gas and, in this project, there will be considered 16 000L of must. This gas is composed mostly of CO2, but also VOCs. Its capture will be performed by NOVIS. Foam existing in the fermentation off-gas will be separated and it will be filtered to remove potential impurities, as particles. An intermediate buffer gas tank will be integrated to enable smooth operation of the compression unit. Filtered gas will be compressed and cooled to liquify the gas. Liquid gas will be stored in tanks in the winery to be later supplied to the cultures. An AI-unit will be integrated in the system to control process parameters and to allow continuous gas measurement. Off-gas capture, gas treatment and storage will be carried out by NOVIS. Pressurized off-gas supplied will be injected into the cultivation in order to reduce bubble size. This micro bubbles, will contribute to higher dissolution efficiency and higher cell uptake. COLD will be in charge of supplying the off-gas to the culture.

This component relies on the utilization of both the gaseous (off-gas) and liquid effluents generated in the winery to cultivate Chlorella in the REDWine Living Lab. The Living Lab will integrate three main streams: 1) the winery liquid effluent, as source of nutrients C, N, P and other elements required for microalgae cultivation; 2) the stored off-gas as source of inorganic (CO2) and organic (VOCs) carbon sources; 3) the biomass inoculum. The Living Lab will include: 1) water collection, treatment and storage system; 2) cultivation medium preparation and storage system (for the liquid effluent); 3) off-gas supply (to be installed by NOVIS and COLD); 4) inoculum production systems (A4F); 5) demo-scale cultivation systems (COLD and A4F), including artificial light (LEDs); 6) temperature regulation system; 7) harvesting system (COLD, A4F and LEITAT); 8) downstream processing system (LEITAT) and VOC recovery unit (PTECH and LEITAT); 9) monitoring, automation and control system; 10) effluent treatment and cultivation medium recycling system; 11) warehouse.

This component will valorize 5 compounds through biomass downstream process combining high energy-efficient technologies and reducing the extraction steps. Biomass obtained from the Living Lab will be processed through a biorefinery process (Figure 5). Pre-treatments steps will be combined with enzymatic processes to disrupt the cell-wall and then processed to obtain three fractions (oil, aqueous and solid) that will be processed through enzymatic or chemical technologies and separated through membrane filtration processes. Physico-chemical characterization will be done to validate each extraction process. The optimization and scale-up of the downstream processes will be done by LEITAT, in collaboration with A4F. For the development, testing and validation of end products, the fractions will be incorporated into different consumer products: food (ALGAMA), cosmetics (LIPO) and agriculture (AVIPE).