EntoGreen V

Use of insects in wastewater treatment and enhancement.

Resumen de la inversión

Categoría de impacto

Sistemas agroalimentarios

Tipo de inversión

Préstamo

Interés anual

6.6

Plazo

meses

Nivel de riesgo

C+

EntoGreen, an Ingredient Odyssey (IO) brand focused on the circular economy in the agri-food sector, has reached an investment that will allow it to build the first industrial unit for bioconversion with insects. The Santarém-based company will use insects to obtain protein for animal feed, non-chemical fertilizers, and insect oil from plant waste.

This is EntoGreen's fifth campaign, after raising 700.000€ through Goparity's investment community (EntoGreen I, II, III, and IV). The previous campaigns were focused on:

acquiring a robot that allows performing the inoculation process in an automated way with considerable gains in productivity, eliminating the possibility of human error, and improvements in energy efficiency in the process.
final industrial investments to strengthen the company's cash flow, allowing final payments for the installation and assembly of the industrial unit in Santarém.
support the company in its overall R&D plan which encompasses an estimated investment of €5 million between 2021 and 2026 for new research projects that focus on creating new solutions for environmental sustainability.
Corporate R&D project NETA - New Wastewater Treatment Strategies.

This campaign aims to anticipate funds that the company will receive from a European project of around 200K euros within the scope of the Corporate R&D project NETA - New Wastewater Treatment Strategies, and another 220K euros from Portugal2020 Productive Innovation Fund.

The development of the NETA project aims to create a new technical solution that allows transforming an environmental threat, wastewater and effluents, into a source of nutrients and water resources. A solution that ranges from irrigation to fertilizer production and even to the creation of new bio-industrial solutions.

Led by Ingredient Odyssey SA (EntoGreen), the NETA project intends to optimize and use the Chemical Precipitation Technique, which was developed by the Polytechnic Institute of Beja (IPBeja), in the treatment of wastewater, using the treated water for agricultural purposes, with the sludge being biodigested by insects, namely larvae of the black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens).

Processes are being developed in the National Animal Science Station (Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária e Veterinária - INIAV) in Santarém. One of the goals is to make this project an example in water circularity. While the water is used in processes ranging from irrigation to aquaponics, the sludge is treated by insects, transforming it into stable, odorless fertilizers ready to be used on farmland. These new fertilizers are already being tested in demonstration fields.

The Univ. of Aveiro and IPBeja will ecotoxicologically evaluate the treated water, sludge, and fertilizers. The insect larvae used in the sludge treatment are being used in biorefinery processes, such as oil extraction for biofuels, cosmetics, and other chemical uses, and the chitin is being used for transformation into chitosan and subsequent use in the creation of bioplastics. As in the past, EntoGreen intends to take this project from laboratory-based development to industrial application, making this project a business and environmental asset.

¿Cuál es el impacto?

Direct

Promotion of innovation and research: the investment in research in the development of innovative solutions for cleaner and more sustainable agriculture and animal feed. The association with universities also allows for the transfer of knowledge and technology in the future. These collaborative relationships can highlight Portugal in the industry of using insects as a scalable sustainable solution.
Reuse of wastewater and promotion of circularity: after the waste water treatment, the sludge is treated by insects, transforming it into stable, odorless fertilizers ready to be used on farmland. The insect larvae used in the sludge treatment are being used in biorefinery processes, such as oil extraction for biofuels, cosmetics, and other chemical uses, and the chitin is being used for transformation into chitosan and subsequent use in the creation of bioplastics. The wastewater disposal is an environmental threat, and this wholesome solution enables a sustainable reuse of the waste and its nutrients in a circular economy perspective.

Contribución a los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible
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Sobre el promotor

About

Ingredient Odyssey SA

Ingredient Odyssey, SA (IO) fue fundada el 4 de marzo de 2014 por Daniel Murta, quien es el CEO y responsable de I+D de IO. Fue durante su doctorado cuando vio en los insectos una oportunidad para contribuir a la sostenibilidad en la producción de alimentos, desarrollando alternativas de proteínas y nuevas fuentes nutricionales para la alimentación humana y animal, basadas en insectos.

Una de las primeras asociaciones surgió con el Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agraria y Veterinaria ((INIAV) en 2013, un socio clave del proyecto EntoGreen.

El primer proyecto presentado conjuntamente con el instituto se centró en fuentes alternativas de proteínas para la alimentación animal (Genética y nutrición y recursos alternativos de alimentación para la producción ganadera terrestre, SFS-01a-2014) y fue presentado a principios de 2014 bajo una solicitud de Horizonte 2020 liderada por la Universidad de Milán e involucrando a varias entidades de diferentes países, tanto dentro como fuera de la Comunidad Europea.

Actualmente, IO y INIAV continúan con el desarrollo del proyecto, habiendo investigado simultáneamente la creación de soluciones para los subproductos vegetales, llevando la economía circular al sector agroalimentario.

En septiembre de 2015, Rui Nunes se unió a la estructura corporativa de Ingredient Odyssey, ya que también trabajó con insectos.

Hasta el día de hoy, EntoGreen sigue desarrollando trabajo en el área y ha comenzado la construcción de una unidad bioindustrial en la que será posible convertir 36.000 toneladas de subproductos vegetales en miles de toneladas de productos finales.

Sin embargo, el papel de I+D en la historia de IO no termina con la implementación de la primera unidad bioindustrial, ya que la empresa pretende seguir investigando y desarrollando nuevos proyectos con biotecnologías innovadoras, con la esperanza de dejar su huella en la sostenibilidad ambiental en Portugal y en el mundo.

La empresa ya ha concluido e inaugurado la nueva Unidad de I+D de EntoGreen, que está totalmente operativa y será una herramienta fundamental para mejorar aún más los procesos y agregar valor a los productos finales. Se espera que la Unidad Industrial de Santarém comience la producción en el último trimestre de este año (2022).

Sitio web del promotor

https://www.entogreen.com/

Equipo

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Modelo de negocio
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