REDWine in Ireland: First meeting of the European REDWine project with International Scientific Advisory Board

The consortium of the European research project “REDWine - Increasing microalgae biomass feedstock by valorizing wine gaseous” invited the members of its International Scientific Advisory Board, including Prof. Bruno Moerschbacher, to its 12-month meeting this week. The project is financially supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking programme. The goal of the project is to use the liquid effluent and the CO2 produced during the fermentation process of wine making to support the growth of green microalgae in sun-powered fermenters and to valorise the Chlorella biomass thus produced. Targets are omega-3 fatty acids and carotenoids, amino acids and peptides, as well as chitosan and other polysaccharides, to develop products for the food and feed, cosmetics, and agricultural markets. It is an ambitious project aiming to go from lab to pilot scale. But after only one year, the partners have already started building a pilot plant in Portugal on a site that can service 250 farmers with about 4000 hectares of vineyards. They have also already performed first test runs at a scale of 100-200 litres, and the resulting algal paste is currently being analysed by different partners. The approach is accompanied by comprehensive planning and modelling, including environmental and social sustainability as well as techno-economic feasibility assessments. Clearly, the project is appealing not only because of its name – it will also help solving environmental problems and, hopefully, even increase wine quality. And of course, we are eager to eventually see the green algal chitosan, to learn about its quality, and to think about its possible uses.