On the 28th of January, the PROMOFER consortium met in Breda, the Netherlands, for the 18-month project meeting, hosted by project partner PDC.
The meeting focused on reviewing progress and planning the next steps in the development of advanced fermentation technologies.
Partners shared updates from all Work Packages, highlighting significant achievements. Collection, characterization, and pretreatment of agricultural and food industrial wastes have been successfully completed, with over 35 biomass batches processed and full traceability ensured, while enzymatic hydrolysis and detoxification protocols have been optimized for high sugar recovery and demo-scale readiness.
Microorganism isolation and characterization for PHBV production are complete, with strains being enhanced through adaptive laboratory evolution and metabolic engineering to improve PHBV and 2,3-BDO yields. Pretreatment and impurity removal of food wastes have been optimized, acidogenic fermentation shows improved VFA yields, and preliminary design and scale-up of PHBV and 2,3-BDO fermentation processes are progressing on schedule. Downstream process optimization has recently started.
Validation of PHBV formulations for packaging and agriculture has begun, while planning for 2,3-BDO validation, PU-based fabrics, and safety assessments is ongoing. Stakeholder surveys and preliminary user profiling support future market deployment, and dissemination and exploitation activities continue with a business plan under development.
The meeting reinforced PROMOFER’s goal: to enhance fermentation efficiency for PHBV and 2,3-BDO and demonstrate scalable, industrial bio-based solutions.
