Industrial Symbiosis for Sustainable Management of Meat Waste: The Case of Smilowo Eco-Industrial Park, Poland.

This study presents the developing process of the Smilowo Eco-Park, located in the Notec valley region (Poland), is a part of the biggest Polish agri-food consortium, from its initial small waste management company to its final structure as an eco-industrial park using industrial symbiosis methods. The industrial symbiosis applied in the Eco-park promotes a business model which covers the whole life cycle of the products starting from the plant growing by animal feed preparation, livestock breeding, meat preparations, meat-bone meal production from animal waste, and the use of pig slurry as a fertilizer. The Eco-park model is presented in the form of a system of connected stream flows of materials and energy covering the full lifecycle of products, from cereal cultivation, through the production of industrial feed, and poultry and pig breeding for the production of meat products. The solutions used include the prevention of environmental pollution through the modernization of existing processes, implementation of new technologies, reduction of waste and its reuse, recycling, and recovery of materials and energy, the substitution of raw materials with waste, and thermal treatment of waste and its use as biofuel. This case study allows for analyses of the organizational and technical key strategic activities which enable waste, including hazardous waste, to be transformed into valuable materials and energy. These activities have modified the system of material and energy flows through the value chain to realize the goal of allowing profitable management of waste according to circular economy methods and also indicates methods of supporting modifications of supply chains in terms of implementation of the industrial symbiosis business model according to its relationship with sustainable development, cleaner production, and circular economy models. EIP Smilowo annually utilizes 300,000 t meat waste, produces 110,000 t meat bone meal biofuel, uses 120,000 t of pig manure as fertilizers, produces 460,000 GJ bioenergy, eliminates 92,000 t CO2 emissions.

Quantification of material recovery from meat waste incineration - An approach to an updated food waste hierarchy.

The meat industry generates a significant amount of hazardous waste, containing phosphorus, calcium, and other elements which could be the basis for other products. This work presents the results of research on the thermal utilisation of bone meat waste and the use of the ash thus obtained as a substitute for phosphorus raw materials. Material Flow Analysis was used to quantify and assess the option with the highest material productivity. Such a solution can be in line with an updated pyramid of food waste hierarchy already proposed in the literature, distinguishing surplus food and a new category for recycling of materials, in analysed case food waste, in the circular economy. The research is based on the example of real data from a Polish meat producer. The quantity of waste from primary production and meat manufacturing containing waste bone in Poland was estimated to be 232,000 t/y (24.0% of the total quantity of meat waste). Its thermal utilisation potentially allows 71,118 t/y of hydroxyapatite ash, a substitute for phosphorites, to be obtained. The high quality hydroxyapatite ash could be used for the production of food grade phosphoric acid and also for the production of food grade mono- and dicalcium feed phosphates.

The Development of the Innovative Synthesis Methodology of Albumin Nanoparticles Supported by Their Physicochemical, Cytotoxic and Hemolytic Evaluation.

Many studies are being performed to develop effective carriers for controlled cytostatic delivery wherein albumin is a promising material due to its tendency to accumulate near cancer cells. The novelty of this work involves the development of the synthesis methodology of albumin nanoparticles and their biological and physicochemical evaluation. Albumin particles were obtained via the salt-induced precipitation and K3PO4 was used as a salting-out agent. Various concentrations of protein and salting-out agent solutions were mixed using a burette or a syringe system. It was proved that the size of the particles depended on the concentrations of the reagents and the methodology applied. As a result of a process performed using a burette and 2 M K3PO4, albumin spheres having a size 5-25 nm were obtained. The size of nanospheres and their spherical shape was confirmed via TEM analysis. The use of a syringe system led to preparation of particles of large polydispersity. The highest albumin concentration allowing for synthesis of homogeneous particles was 2 g/L. The presence of albumin in spheres was confirmed via the FT-IR technique and UV-Vis spectroscopy. All samples showed no cytotoxicity towards normal human dermal fibroblasts and no hemolytic properties against human erythrocytes (the hemolysis did not exceed 2.5%).

Starch Solutions Prepared under Different Conditions as Modifiers of Chitosan/Poly(aspartic acid)-Based Hydrogels.

Recently, there has been great interest in the application of polysaccharides in the preparation of diverse biomaterials which result from their biocompatibility, biodegradability and biological activity. In this work, the investigations on chitosan/poly(aspartic acid)-based hydrogels modified with starch were described. Firstly, a series of hydrogel matrices was prepared and investigated to characterize their swelling properties, structure via FT-IR spectroscopy, elasticity and tensile strength using the Brookfield texture analyzer as well as their impact on simulated physiological liquids. Hydrogels consisting of chitosan and poly(aspartic acid) in a 2:1 volume ratio were elastic (9% elongation), did not degrade after 30-day incubation in simulated physiological liquids, exhibited a relative biocompatibility towards these liquids and similar swelling in each absorbed medium. This hydrogel matrix was modified with starch wherein two of its form were applied-a solution obtained at an elevated temperature and a suspension obtained at room temperature. Hydrogels modified with hot starch solution showed higher sorption that unmodified materials. This was probably due to the higher starch inclusion (i.e., a larger number of hydrophilic groups able to interact with the adsorbed liquid) when this polysaccharide was given in the form of a hot solution. Hydrogels modified with a cold starch suspension had visible heterogeneous inequalities on their surfaces and this modification led to the obtainment materials with unrepeatable structures which made the analysis of their properties difficult and may have led to misleading conclusions.

Data on the thermal method of odour elimination implemented in the Polish agro-food consortium.

The data presented in this article are related to the research paper entitled "The circular economy model used in the Polish agro-food consortium: a case study" published in the Journal of Cleaner Production 284 (2021) 124751. The utilisation of meat waste for the production of meat-bone meal is the Farmutil's consortium main activity. The Oxidor system was developed for the combustion of all the odour emitted from meat-bone meal production. This improved the relationship of consortium with the public. Flow-sheet of the unit for thermal oxidation of odour, scheme and image of the thermo-oxidator were presented. The steam produced in the Oxidor system is recycled and re-used for meat-bone meal production. This is an example of new organisational solutions in circular economy originating from a physical flow concept in which energy flows are used as a result of closed-loop recycling.

Optimisation of the co-combustion of meat-bone meal and sewage sludge in terms of the quality produced ashes used as substitute of phosphorites.

To obtain a high-quality phosphorus raw material comparable in quality to the best phosphorites used in the fertiliser industry, an analysis was carried out to determine the optimal mass proportions of a meat-bone meal and sewage sludge mixture to be used in a co-combustion process. The ashes obtained contained hydroxyapatite that could be considered a high-quality substitute for phosphorites, with an average P2O5 content of 33.5%. These ashes do not contain fluorine compounds, cadmium content is at trace levels and they do not contain the radioactive compounds that are present in trace amounts in all phosphates. The developed process is an example of a production complex using cleaner technologies and circular economy principles on a microeconomic scale.

Pig manure treatment by filtration.

A study of new pig manure treatment and filtration process was carried out. The advantage of the worked out technology is the method of incorporation of crystalline phase into solid organic part of manure. The obtained new solid phase of manure contains about 50% of crystalline phase forming a filtration aid that enables high effectiveness of manure filtration. The filtration rate of manure separation into solid and liquid fractions with pressure filter may achieve 1300-3000 kg/m(2)/h. The method makes it possible to maintain an overall average pollutant removal performance 90% for the chemical oxygen demand COD, > 99% for the suspended solids SS, to 47% for the total nitrogen content. The obtained results showed that the proposed technology being efficient and simple offers a possible solution to pig manure problems.

Changes in the properties of pig manure slurry.

The paper presents the results of analyses of samples of manure from a pig farm located near Pila, Poland performed between June 2011 and May 2012 using a single sampling system. The statistical analyses of the average content of chemical and biological oxide demands, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium and dry mass in the slurry in various seasons allowed us to draw conclusions concerning the changes in the chemical composition of the manure in specific seasons and to determine the correlations between the chemical parameters. The average content of N, BOD, P, and dry mass content tended to decrease systematically from the spring until the winter. The highest correlation coefficient, which indicates significant interdependency among the variables tested, was consistently found for COD and BOD, whereas the smallest correlation coefficient was found consistently for K and Ca and once for Ca and N.