BioScaleUp Project – Inauguration Ceremony Paragraph (Lisheen) 

Since the commencement of the BioScaleUp project, significant progress has been achieved across multiple experimental fronts. Procurement and installation of all equipment is completed in collaboration with NBPP leads.  

In research, we initiated both AD and Algal tasks. In the AD task, we have successfully completed a comprehensive investigation into various pretreatment methods of catering food waste. All thermal, microaerobic, and ultrasonic treatments applied to feedstock to enhance volatile fatty acid (VFA) and biogas production, followed by a systematic evaluation of different organic loading rates under batch methane potential conditions to further optimise VFA yields. VFA profiling has been completed using HPLC analysis across key fermentation time points, providing detailed insights into the acidogenic fermentation performance. Following the optimisation of VFA production, the fermented liquid and solids were separated, with the solid fraction redirected into a second-stage anaerobic digestion (AD) system for biogas generation, which has now been successfully completed at laboratory scale. And now it is being progressed to 300L volumes. In the microalgal cultivation task, we screened pre-selected algal strains and cultivated these on anaerobic digestate sourced from both pilot-sized and industrial digesters. We have also initiated experiments evaluating the growth performance of different microalgal strains and a consortium; the work is currently underway. Collectively, these achievements reflect the strong momentum of the BioScaleUp project in developing an integrated, circular biorefinery approach that valorises feedstock through cascaded biological processes.