Food, agricultural, and marine waste will be turned into nutritional ingredients and protein rich feed at a BioFactory being built in Geelong by Deakin University.
The $16.4 million Circular Economy Accelerator-Organics (CEA-O) project is a collaboration between Deakin and Monash Universities, RMIT, the Victorian government and 20 industry partners. The state government contributed $10 million.
The project aims to reduce organic waste going to landfill but also build long-term collaborative partnerships with agriculture, food, water, and other adjacent industries to help transform industries and supply chains for Victoria and Australia.
The Deakin BioFactory will pilot and test new processes to use food waste, agricultural waste, and marine by-products to develop new products such as protein-rich feed, nutritional ingredients, fertilizer, cosmetic ingredients, and biomaterials for medical and textile applications.
The BioFactory will focus on:
- reducing organic waste going to landfill;
- developing new approaches to transform and process organic waste;
- testing and innovating new processing techniques at a pilot manufacturing scale, enabling industry to de-risk future investments in biomanufacturing;
- transforming biomass and biosolid waste into valuable outputs including feeds, nutrition, fertilisers and biomaterials, contributing to a waste-minimising circular economy;
- creating new products and alternatives to petrochemical derived products;
- transforming under-utilised marine biomass into bioproduct; and
- building long-term collaborative partnerships with the agriculture, food, water, and other adjacent industries.
Deakin will provide advanced biomanufacturing capability to convert organic waste, which will link into RMIT’s expanded facilities for food, water, and biosolids processing. Monash University will then provide product, process quality, and analysis.
Deakin vice-chancellor professor Iain Martin said the university was proud to play an integral role in positioning Victoria as an innovation leader in industry-focussed solutions for the processing of organic waste.
“This is a significant partnership between three universities who are working closely with industry partners to deliver new waste and recycling solutions - an important step towards establishing a multi-billion-dollar bioeconomy for Victoria,” Martin said.
Deputy vice-chancellor research and Alfred Deakin professor Julie Owens said the project confirmed the university’s commitment to building Victoria’s circular economy through piloting recycling solutions and helping industry to create new business models that successfully address and release the full product lifecycle.
“Deakin is a leader in this area. We have a proven track record in engaging with industry and bringing together leading researchers across different disciplines to generate sustainable processes, products and waste solutions for our industry partners and communities,” Owens said.
More than 15 industry partners have already expressed interest in utilising the new capability.
To learn more about the Circular Economy Accelerator or discuss partnership opportunities click here.
