Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Çetintaşoğlu M. E., Taşkın Ö. S., Keleş Ö., Çağlar N. (Yürütücü), Şahin Yeşilçubuk N.(Yürütücü), Aksu A.
UFUK AVRUPA Projesi, UFUK AVRUPA Projesi, 2024 - 2028
Blue economy relies on the sustainable use of marine resources, and marine biorefinery has become one of the emerging concepts to reach ambitious Blue Economy targets (i.e., putting sustainability at the core of the Blue Economy, climate neutrality by 2050). Although the biorefinery concept has been well-developed for several waste streams, marine biorefineries are relatively new concepts which are underestimated so far. Current research has focused on some of the marine resources such as seaweeds, microalgae, or marine shells to produce various products from one typical marine resource1,2,3 . To go beyond the current know-how and expand the impact area of the marine biorefineries, reshaping the biorefinery concept by considering the various elements of the marine resources (i.e., low trophic organisms, invasive species) and waste streams (aquaculture, fishery) together is crucial. This approach will be the key for developing next-generation “multi-source” and “multi-product” marine biorefinery systems. Furthermore, upgrading this biorefinery concept with cascading approach that one end-product can be used in another process chain within the biorefinery can significantly increase the circularity. So, one of the main research questions arises as to how to design a novel marine biorefinery cascading approach for the development of variable product chains from different marine raw sources and wastes. Another ground-breaking strategy is designing “adaptive” biorefinery concept considering the variations in the local needs and marine resources and wastes within the EU, so that the knowledge transfer at transnational level and adaptation strategies will be straightforward. So, the other main research question focuses on how to upgrade this holistic perspective as “adaptive” and “pioneering” for other marine ecosystems. Finally, the predominant focus of current research lies in technological advancements, often neglecting societal and environmental considerations. How to interconnect the society and to evaluate environmental impacts within the biorefinery concept development is another research question to be considered. SEAREFINERY aims to establish a novel bio-based blue food/feed and blue food packaging materials production platform by embracing marine-based sources and wastes at transnational level (five targeted seas given in Fig 1). SEAREFINERY platform will be designed through innovative approaches within a multidisciplinary and smart collaboration platform for developing a breakthrough eco-centric strategy considering the local sources, economic and social perspectives at transnational level within the EU. This pin-point novel approach fulfills the needs for restoring and preservation of the marine ecosystem, the needs and requirements of society and end-users as well as it can allow for new business models and investment schemes. Specific aims of SEAREFINERY targeting Priority Area 3 “Climate-neutral, environmentally sustainable, and resource-efficient blue food and feed” are listed below: 1) Conversion of marine biomass into high-value added products: There are many crucial environmental problems in the European seas due to excessive pollution loads (i.e., nutrients), climate change and transport of ballast waters resulting in devastating changes in the marine ecosystems. These factors intensify the competition between the native species and invasive/non-native ones for marine ecosystems, placing additional stress on natural biodiversity. To relieve the marine ecosystems, it is crucial to remove the invasive/non-native species and to extract economic value for them. Furthermore, the marine residues such as beach wrack and fishery by-products can lead to socio-environmental problems if not managed properly, then valorizing these residues is also a key for blue economy. Herein, SEAREFINERY aims to exploit the potential of undesired marine species (i.e, invasive species, low trophic organisms such as algae) that disrupt marine ecosystems and unused/waste marine products (i.e., seashell, fishery and 1 Balina K., Romagnoli F., Blumberga D., 2017. Seaweed biorefinery concept for sustainable use of marine resources, Energy Procedia,128,504-511. 2 Nishshanka K.G.S.H, Anthonio R.A.D.P., Nimarshana P.H.V.et al., 2022. Marine microalgae as sustainable feedstock for multi-product biorefineries, Biochemical Engineering Journal, 187, 108593. 3 Kiehbadroudinezhad M., Hosseinzadeh-Bandbafha H., Varjani S. et al., 2023. Marine shell-based biorefinery: A sustainable solution for aquaculture waste valorization, Renewable Energy, 206, 623-634. Fig 1. General framework of the project 2 aquaculture-F&A waste) for the production of high value-added materials from the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. 2) Exploitation of marine-based extracted materials in blue food production and packaging: The burden on the food production due to global population growth and related environmental problems (i.e., plastic pollution due to food packaging) forces the sector`s transition into a sustainable way. SEAREFINERY aims to use the recovered marine-based high added value compounds (i.e., biopolymers, lipids, bioactive compounds, inorganic fraction) for the production of i) blue food (meet, cheese, and bread); ii) edible coating and biodegradable films/nanofibers to develop active packaging; and iii) red algae-derived biosensor to monitor and prolong shelf life of the blue food products. 3) Reduction of bycatch, discards and processing waste from aquaculture and fisheries and exploitation of blue feed from marine resources: Valorization of aquaculture and fishery waste can be considered as one of the pillars of sustainable aquaculture and fishery practices. SEAREFINERY aims to catalyze the transformation of value chains in the blue economy to blue feed materials (microalgae-based feed, bacteria-based single cell protein, SCP) by the valorization of bycatch, discards, and processing waste from unavoidable biomass side streams of aquaculture and fisheries in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.