PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
The project aims to address the problem of inefficient management of bio-waste, food waste, and food-related waste in Greece and similar regions, where a significant portion of this waste ends up in landfills, contributing to environmental degradation and greenhouse gas emissions. Transforming food waste into animal feed can reduce reliance on traditional feed crops, lower animal breeding costs and improve farmers' income, while also addressing waste management challenges.
In Greece, according to data from the National Waste Management Plan (2020), 78.4% of municipal solid waste (MSW) is landfilled, significantly exceeding the EU average of 22.6%. Despite the availability of agricultural and livestock biomass, only 3.5–5% of the annual production is utilised. Large volumes of food waste are lost or discarded, including fruits and vegetables from production chains and supermarkets, which could have been prevented or repurposed. At the same time, the prices of traditional animal feeding crops have increased dramatically over the last years, affected by the pandemic and the Ukraine armed conflict.
The project seeks to reduce the carbon footprint and resource consumption, associated with animal feed production, by transforming bio-waste into animal feed or feed components, aligned with the circular economy principles.
LIFE-INOFEED builds on the groundwork laid by LIFE-F4F (LIFE15/ENV/GR/000257 – LIFE Food for Feed) to advance the use of food-related waste in animal feed production and address legislative and operational challenges.
OBJECTIVES
The core objective of the LIFE-INOFEED project is to transform various urban, crop, and agro-industrial food-related wastes, classified as bio-waste under the Waste Framework Directive, into animal feed or feed components in a viable and profitable way, while ensuring significant environmental benefits. The project will employ an innovative approach using solar energy for direct or indirect drying of feedstock materials and the implementation of on-site treatment to address challenges associated with centralised waste management facilities. The project aims to demonstrate the feasibility of this, decentralised approach, reduce waste management costs, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and support the circular economy by producing high-value products from bio-waste.
The specific project objectives are:
- Optimisation and Demonstration of the modular, containerised Autonomous Onsite Solar Drying Units (AOSDU) for the production of animal feed or feed components from bio-waste, in real-life conditions. The project will design, construct, and install six AOSDU units, as follows:
- Unit 1: At a supermarket logistics centre to treat fruits, vegetables, rice, flour, pasta, and bread waste.
- Unit 2: At a two-phase olive oil mill to treat olive oil mill sludge.
- Unit 3: At a chicken slaughterhouse to treat poultry by-products.
- Unit 4: At a fruits and vegetables packaging unit to treat agricultural waste.
- Unit 5: At a five-star hotel to treat catering waste.
- Unit 6: At INAGRO facilities in Belgium to test the technology under less "solar-friendly" conditions and evaluate its efficiency with local waste types.
- Produce animal feed from bio-waste, conduct animal feed trials to assess the quality and safety of the produced feed. Obtain necessary licenses and certificates for animal feed production and distribution.
- Establish a centralised facility for final treatment, packaging, and storage of feed products.
- Evaluate alternative uses for the dried bio-waste, including bioplastic production, anaerobic digestion, biochar production, and composting.
- Develop a complete business model for commercialisation, including energy optimisation through virtual net metering.
- Conduct environmental, social, and techno-economic evaluations to assess the impact and feasibility of the concept.
- Advocate for changes in EU legislation to allow broader use of bio-waste in animal feed production.
- Inform stakeholders, the general public, and decision-makers about the project through various communication channels and events.
RESULTS
The expected results of the LIFE-INOFEED project are:
- Treatment of approximately 4,000 tons of bio-waste during the project, including fruits, vegetables, olive oil mill sludge, chicken slaughterhouse by-products, and catering waste.
- Production of about 1,600 tons of animal feed, with 1,300 tons expected to be usable for animal feeding.
- Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 5,600 tons of CO2-equivalent during the project.
- Use of solar drying technology to minimise external energy consumption, with an average of 100 kWh of external electricity required per ton of water evaporated.
- Development of a viable business model with estimated profits and payback periods for the AOSDU units and centralised facility.
- Acquisition of production licenses for feed and preparation for commercial distribution.
- Evaluation and implementation of alternative uses for bio-waste, such as biochar production, bioplastic manufacturing, anaerobic digestion, and composting.
- Deployment of six AOSDU units, including one in Belgium, and support for replication in other regions.
- Collaboration with waste-producing facilities, feed producers, and other stakeholders to ensure project success and scalability.
- Informing over 1,000,000 people globally about the project and engaging stakeholders through events, publications, and social media.
- Sustaining 44 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs and creating 15 FTE jobs as part of the exapanded facility in the future.
- Supporting discussions to lift legal barriers on the use of catering waste for feed production.
- Conducting environmental and social evaluations to demonstrate the project's benefits and align with EU policies.