The consortium has already tested INCOVER technologies individually at lab scale. The innovation of INCOVER project comes from the combination of all INCOVER technologies, for a bio-production and resource recovery-based wastewater treatment. The description of each technology is as follows:

Yeast based organic acid production

Technology description

Unsterile Bioproduction of Organic Acids using the non-conventional yeast Yarrowia Lipolytica

This biotechnology employs microogranisms and carbohydrates carbohydrate-containing substrates such as ethanol, glycerol, vegetable oils, paraffin, paraffin by-products and waste materials (e.g. waste frying oil, raw glycerol) to produce organic acids.

The biotechnology developed in INCOVER is based on the non-conventional yeast Yarrowia Lipolytica for the production of citric acid with high product concentrations and formation rates by way of non-sterile process mode. It is intended that the biotechnology can be well integrated in existing infrastructure, e.g. by using a conventional intermediate bulk container commonly used for wastewater treatment as bioreactor.

Kitchen cleaning waters from the company Sodexo are used as process water.

Yeast pseudozyma tsukupaensis (Aurich, 2016)

Preliminary and final products of the yeast process (Aurich, 2016)

Bio-products obtained: Citric Acid and other organic acids

Quantity of bioproducts obtained per m³ of treated water: up to 32 kg citric acid per day.

Key benefits of the technology

Supports implementing circular economy concept
Reuse of wastewater
Valorization of waste oils
Cost-efficient solution towards improved renewable resource use

Objectives by the end of the project

Robust and efficient yeast-based bioprocess producing 32 kg per day citric acid from waste frying oil under non-sterile process conditions.

Target application / end-users

Food industries / Caterers

Technology Readiness Level (TRL)