EXCornsEED

The european project EXCornsEED aims to develop sustainable technologies that allow to obtain functional constituents to food, chemical products and cosmetics from secondary effluents of corn biorefineries, bioethanol and biodiesel.

It has a duration of three and a half years and an incentive of 4,2 millon euros from the Bio-Based Industries under the Horizon 2020 (H2020) programme of the European Union. Led by the University of Roma Sapienza, the project has 13 partners from 8 countries (Italy, Slovakia, Romania, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany and Netherlands).

EXCornsEED is framed within the european objective of transforming the traditional bioethanol production into a new concept of more sustainable biorefinery, accordingly to the bioeconomic strategy of the European Union and aligned with the new concept of Circular Economy, which promotes a better use of resources in order to make its exploitation more sustainable and environmentally conscius.

It pretends to combine chemistry, biology, engineering and biotechnology to develop and validate sustainable technologies of extraction, purification and concentration applicable to bio-refineries. This approach aims to extract proteins and other bioactive compounds (peptides, polyphenols, amino acids, fibres, etc.) from its secondary effluents, to its subsequent use as ingredients in food, chemicals and cosmetics.