Multistage biochemical refinery unit in complementing fossil hydrocarbons

Microbes make the carbon cycle function in the biosphere. Their use in human industries; utilization of organic compounds, transformation of Organic Matter (OM), accumulation of biomaterials and carbon sequestration make a life-maintaining contribution to our societies. This is provided that we learn to understand and integrate the circulation of carbon in anthropogenic systems into natural ecosystems. Microbes are a key to understanding these mechanisms. We investigated the industrial side stream utilization by mixed microbial cultures in non-aseptic conditions. This gave us industrial processes that operated like ecosystems. They provided up to three-fold productivities and yields compared to the microbial pure cultures. The products were analyzed using NMR spectroscopy (https://www.chemadder.com), which covered both the raw material composition and product manifestation most broadly and accurately. The microbiological bioprocess comprised the natural microflora of the side streams in question, additional industrial strains, and various enzymes as biocatalysts. It was operated and steered by the "Industry Like Nature®" principle (www.finnoflag.fi). Chemical products depend on the sidestream of raw materials, which could originate from various industries, agriculture, or communities. Some of these sources were environmentally deposited, as in the case of P&P factory zero fibre sediments. The commodities or bulk chemicals included organic acids, such as acetic, propionic, butyric and lactic acids, longer-chain acids (hydrocarbons), and various alcohols and sugar alcohols.

In some cases, the mixtures were usable as industrial fuels, but value-added chemicals as ultimate products could make the overall process more feasible. They enabled the development of novel product entities. Sustainability was readily demonstrable, as carbon was consolidated into industrial ecosystems instead of directly emitted into air, water, or soil. The produced substances were purified as bulk or fine chemicals for food, feed, cosmetics, polymer, medical, and other industries. They could be used as preservatives or substitutes in many product chains, which still increase the binding of carbon (and many other elements or molecules) into the cycles. This increased the adhesion of various molecules into the products and the duration of this integration into the product streams. Many of the products also replaced or complemented the fossil sources in a climate-friendly way. The final residues of the chemical-making processes were useful soil improvement agents, as demonstrated in the "Zero waste from zero fibre project" in 2018-19 in Tampere, Finland, funded by the Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (Blue bioeconomy program) and in 2023-24 in the EU funded BioResque project (CircInWater call). Chemical production was thus the most critical step in the return of the organics and their carbon residues into the total circulation. The fate of various molecules could be followed by NMR-based surveillance and microbiological communities characterized by tools such as PMEU (Portable Microbe Detection Unit).