Introduction

Before deciding to work on this project, we investigated its feasibility and implementation in the real world. After an exhaustive task, we talked to different companies that generate tonnes of vegetable waste so that they could tell us how they manage this material and what economic return they obtain from it. The conclusion we drew from these meetings is that the profit is minimal, barely enough to cover the costs of its removal. Our project proposes a solution for this problem, giving value to a waste product in a sustainable way.

At the moment, we could say that we are in the initial phase of the project, the research. Initially, it seems possible to carry it out with more time and funding.

Future

The second step would be the use of bioreactors to produce starch in large quantities to our bacteria.

We propose that our project can be implemented in large agricultural companies, moving from conceiving plant waste as waste to starting to visualize it as a valuable raw material.

Starch is a versatile molecule that can be used as a raw material to generate biofuel, bioplastics or as a component for animal feed. The versatility of this molecule allows the implementation of our project in the industry to have a future, being able to generate different products of economic interest from it.

The users of our reactor would be companies in the agricultural sector, interested in making profitable use of the tonnes of plant waste they generate. Ideally, our reactor proposal would be located in large waste reception centers. The plant material would be subjected to a prior treatment process to obtain maximum performance in the process. This treatment would have to be fine-tuned, and would then pass through the bioreactor to obtain starch. In order to obtain some of the products we propose, it would be necessary to design a new bioreactor to obtain them. Another possibility would be to sell the starch directly to another company for processing.

For its implementation, a safety protocol would be needed to control the extraction of the starch and avoid possible contamination with our modified bacteria outside the bioreactor area. All this in addition to a protocol for the purification of this molecule.

Context

We are currently in a climate crisis in which it is crucial to develop new methods of obtaining energy and to reduce the amount of plastic that is massively polluting our planet. While all this is happening, we must ensure the food sustenance of the living beings that make up our planet, so being able to produce feed for livestock and fish from the starch generated thanks to planting waste would ensure the food sustenance of living beings ecologically; thus being able to take advantage of the water that is currently spent on harvesting to feed livestock.

Challenges to overcome

We would need a monetary investment to be able to implement all the necessary machinery to carry out these processes. In addition, we would need an industrial building to place all the materials.

Another challenge we would have to overcome would be, in the case of starting our own company, to establish collaborations with companies in the agricultural sector to receive their vegetable waste. We would also have to collaborate with companies in other sectors that could process our products. In this case, it would also be necessary to create a business plan and a customer loyalty plan. Our project is designed to manage solanum lycopersicum waste. Another of our challenges would be to optimize this process to be able to manage any type of vegetable waste, even those with a high concentration of lignin, which makes our process difficult.