The Sapienza University hosted the final plenary meeting of the EXCornsEED project, which took place on February 13 and 14, 2023 in Rome (Italy).

The meeting focused on the progress achieved in the last months of activities and each partner presented the results obtained in their work packages at the end of the project that has been in development for the past almost 5 years.

The event began with an introduction of the CBE-JU Project Officer Ana Ruiz Sierra and a keynote speech from the project coordinator Prof. Dr. Giancarlo Fabrizi (University La Sapienza, Rome), who provided an overview of the project, presenting the challenges the team faced and the breakthroughs they achieved.

A special attention was given to the latest scientific and technical development. In the session dedicated to biorefineries’ side streams, Dr. Gabriella Di Lena (CREA, Italy) introduced to the audience the biofuel biorefineries side streams studied in the project and their valorization potentials.

In the session dedicated to the technologies and processes developed, were illustrated  small-scale methods for the valorization of post-fermentation corn oil and rapeseed meal (Dr. Antonia Iazzetti, Univerity La Sapienza, Rome), the nanoformulation of compounds recovered from rapeseed meal (Dr. Florin Oancea, ICECHIM, Romania) and the methodological development of side streams valorisation from lab to intermediate semi-pilot-scale conducted at Celabor laboratories (Dr. Camille Malterre and Dr. Mahmoud Hamzaoui, CELABOR, Belgium). Dr. Petra Ondrejková, from ENVIRAL a.s. (Slovakia) the biofuel industry initiator of the project proposal and part of the EXCornseED Consortium, has presented the scale-up process  realised with success at its premises.

In the session dedicated to sustainability assessment, Dr. Maria Nieto Fajardo (Consultant, CTA, Spain) and Fernando Cirez (TECNALIA, Spain) have provided an overview of sustainability and techno-economic assessment analyses conducted in the frame of the project.

The highlight of the event was the unveiling of the project’s final product: represented by the cosmetic company Dr Lauranne (Dr. Gaetano Galeppi, Italy) and by the food companies, Danone Nutricia Research (Roland Gouzy, The Netherlands) and  BIOZOON Food Innovations GMBH (Dr. Ann-Kristin Schwarze,  Germany).

The meeting was the chance not only to discuss the progresses achieved within the consortium, but also to exchange ideas with all the results of the project and the researchers involved.

The audience was thrilled by the results and gave the consortium a standing ovation. The project was seen as a significant advancement in the field of the bioeconomy, with particular focus on the development and validation of an integrated process of innovative and highly sustainable extraction/purification/concentration technologies to be applied to bio-refineries side streams, and many attendees were excited to see the new bio-refineries in the future.

In a closing phase, in synergy with the sister project BIOBESTICED, Dr. Anna Franciosini (from Ciaotech, PNO Group) presented the results of the other project and how the technology intelligence can exploit and create new opportunities and collaborations in the framework of different projects.

In doing so, the final event of Project  EXCornsEED was a resounding success, and its legacy will continue to benefit society for years to come.