ERA-NET: Bluebio Commercial exploitation of marine collagen and chitin from marine sources

Verden har begrensede biologiske ressurser. Disse bør utnyttes best mulig for å unngå overforbruk og for å redusere mengden avfall. Dette kan man gjøre ved å lage produkter av det som ellers ville blitt deponert, kastet eller på andre måter ikke best mulig utnyttet. I EU anslår man at omtrent 138 millioner tonn biologisk avfall produseres hvert år. Forskerne i prosjektet BlueCC ønsket å undersøke potensialet til en rekke kategorier biologisk materiale som ofte utnyttes dårlig: bifangst fra fiskeriene, rensefisk fra havbruket og invaderende marine arter. Med dette som råmateriale ønsket vi å skape nye og innovative marine produkter. Våre markedsforskere startet med å spørre forbrukerne hvilke nye produkter basert på ulike biologiske materialer de ønsket seg. Markedsundersøkelsene kunne tyde på at kollagen fra noen av disse ressursene blandet i en yoghurt ville bli godt mottatt. Kollagen er et protein man finner i bindevev til mennesker, fisk og mange dyr, og er med å gjøre vevet mer smidig og sterkt. Vi hentet kollagen fra rensefisk der målet vårt var å bruke andre, mindre giftige kjemikaler enn det som tradisjonelt har vært brukt for å hente ut kollagen og kitin. Det viste seg å være utfordrende, og metodene fungerte ikke slik vi hadde tenkt. Likevel har prosjektet klart å redusere mengden tradisjonelle kjemikaler brukt i prosessen. Til vår avsluttende samling i Brussel i september 23 hadde våre forskere klart å lage en prototype av et kollagenholdig produkt der hydrolysat av rognkjeks var blandet inn i yoghurten. Produktkonseptet trenger fortsatt noe utvikling av smaken. BlueCC jobbet også mye med kitin, som finnes i skallet på skalldyr, fra invaderende krabbearter. Vi undersøkte kitin sin evne til å få partikler til å samle seg i en løsning, også kalt flokkulering.

BlueCC has: -delivered guidelines for future product development. -established a new fermentation process for chitin substrates derived from marine invasive species based on the characterized chi5 strain and uncharacterized strains. -demonstrated scalable reproducible isolation and processing methods for collagen derived products from low value biomasses and created prototype product concepts -delivered added value by reporting important bioactivities such as anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and anti-oxidant effects. -develop a commercialisation plan, including identifying sources of financing, for the exploitation of the innovation post-project and identification of potential exploitation partners outside of the consortium.

Over the coming decades, the world will witness increased competition for limited and finite natural resources. Bio-waste is estimated at up to 138 million tons per year in the EU, of which up to 40% goes to landfill. This includes large amounts of by-catches from the fisheries. Other sources of poorly utilized marine biomass are cleaner fish used in aquaculture, and several invasive marine species which are currently causing devastation to local ecosystems. This represents not only problems, but also opportunities for innovative actions in the EU to better develop targeted uses of what is currently wasted or disturbing our ecosystems. The BlueCC project aims to take underutilised species such as invasive marine species, by-catch and cleaner fish from the aquaculture industry to develop new eco-friendly marine ingredients and products in a market acceptance approach. The focus will be on sustainably exploiting chitin and collagen produced by invasive crabs, jellyfish, starfish and cleaner fish, respectively, and demonstrate prototype products containing these polymers and/or their hydrolysates. To succeed with product development of research-intense products such as chitin/chitosan and collagen, we will apply a strong emphasis on market needs and insights throughout the project. BlueCC will be carried out by an interdisciplinary team and is divided into six main work packages addressing market driven concept development, sustainable chitin/chitosan and collagen demonstrators, characterization of the novel marine ingredients, including in vitro documentation of e.g. anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial effects, and finally, commercialization feasibility in an RRI framework. Altogether, BlueCC will in a sustainable and efficient manner exploit underutilized marine raw materials, from laboratory to prototype demonstration, to reach collagen- and chitin/chitosan-based bioactive demonstrators with potential commercial uses reaching the Technology Readiness Level 7.