Description of the institution
The Centre for innovative process engineering (CENTIV) is a multi-disciplinary research organization with the objective to support the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through technological innovations. Centiv develops and markets innovative processes and products with and for the industry. With this activity Centiv has created a network of contacts with SMEs around Europe and an expertise on how to deal with them. Centiv means more than 15 years of successful acquisition of funding for the implementation of Research & Innovation projects – on national level (BMBF, DBU, AiF etc.) as well as on international level (EU). Centiv is member of industrial platforms such as CommNet s first FAB Industry Forum) and Traceback.
Centiv has been involved in several research projects related to process developments for the food and farm sector and has been active in networks for waste management and biomass mapping:
Aquagris – Environmental management reform for sustainable farming, fisheries and aquaculture Aquaterre – Integrated European Network for biomass and waste reutilisation
METELCAD – Development of an on-line instrument to detect heavy metal concentrations in waste water
Role in the project
Centiv GmbH will be responsible for up-scaling the fermentation processes from lab-scale to pilot-scale. Therefore they will closely cooperate with BZN and UASB. Following the up-scale they will further optimise the fermentation processes towards the yield and establish SOP for the processes. These SOPs contain all necessary parameters such as pH-value, temperature, composition and flow of feed substrate.
As centre for innovative process engineering it is a core competence of Centiv and their experience goes back to more than 15 years. Centiv has specialized equipment and well trained staff, for the adequate fulfillment of this project, knowledge about large scale pretreatment, biocatalysis and downstream processing for the recovery of bio-products. The team of bioprocess, chemicals and mechanical engineers is established and trained to perform the scale-up tests. To achieve this, a wide range of (semi-)industrial scale equipment is available.
Centiv has great experience in the following aspects of relevance for this project: Engineering and design (CAD) of equipment needed to optimise biocatalytic processes, Integration of new equipment to existing plants, Implementation of field tests and feasibility studies, Besides these, Centiv developed a fermentation process and scaled-up it to produce a new product Spargel Schnaps using a raw material asparagus peels (considered waste). The product is already available on the market. (www.spargelschnaps.de)
Key personnel
Dr. Dipl-Ing. Monica Trif: received her PhD in the field of biotechnology as well as and MSc Degree in Applied Biotechnology. Dr. Trif also participated in international/national projects related to functional food/natural additives and ingredients, biorefinery (new added-value molecules obtained from natural matrices (including waste) with benefits to nutrition and health) applied for food and non-food waste valorization, agri-food quality, authenticity and safety.She has been active in the research of bioprocesses area to develop biomass pretreatments and biocatalytic systems and downstream processing, as well as robustness analysis and scale-up activities of the processes for (semi-)industrial application during her studies at Department of Enzyme Technologies at TU Berlin, Germany and Department of Food Science and Technology at USAMV Cluj, Romania. Within the GRAIL Project Dr. Trif will be responsible for the scientific approach of the scale-up.
Mr. Malte Bethke, owner and managing director of the company, who has a degree in chemical and mechanical engineering. He has more than 15 years of experience in project management and machine/process development. In the GRAIL Project Mr Bethke will support the design of process and will furthermore coordinate the work allocated to Centiv during scale-up.