CBIO - Aarhus University's Center for Circular Bioeconomy is among the members of the Partnership for Sustainable Biorefinery, which is a partnership that brings together Danish actors in bioeconomy and sustainable biorefining across the value chain. The partnership consists of a wide range of companies, organisations, and universities with the Ministry of the Environment and Food as an observer.

New note focuses on potential and barriers

On October 2, 2019, members of the Sustainable Biorefinery Partnership met at the Ministry of the Environment and Food to discuss potentials, barriers, and desired efforts on biorefining and -proteins in Denmark. The aim of the meeting was to prepare a memo based on the "Proteins for the Future" recommendations of the National Bioeconomy Panel, 2018 and the Danish Protein Innovation Strategy of 2019.

The partnership highlights, among other things, new proteins from land, sea, wastewater, and residual and lateral streams as new potentials in sustainable biorefining. While technological immaturity, long value chains, legislation, and consumer attitudes are just some of the barriers the partnership mentioned in the new memo.

Desired efforts

The almost 20 members of the partnership also outline a number of desired efforts. Among other things, according to the memo, research and development for safety in relation to protein extraction from waste and wastewater could contribute to an upgrading of protein for feed and food.

In addition, the partnership sees great potential in increased Nordic cooperation in biorefining, as grass and seaweed are great Nordic resources.

Read more about Danish Protein Innovation in the article "Proteins in new ways" here.

Read all the potentials, barriers and desired efforts in the Partnership for Sustainable Biorefinery memo here. (In danish only)