This project will use the waste from egg breakers food industries (at the end of the food chain value) to develop a biostimulant for the agricultural market.
The company Terremo’logic is an expert in collecting and processing food by-products, with a unique process developed by the company, into dried powder products on industrial scale. Eggshell powder has a sanitary approval and are authorized and sold as lime amendment for the agricultural market while egg membranes are few valorized at the present time. Terremo’logic has extensive expertise in the recycling of by-products from industrial egg breakers. It currently recovers 6,000 tons of eggshells a year, including 400 tons of membranes. The shells are successfully sold by Terremo’logic, since 2020, to farmers from Brittany, and developments are in progress for a higher value added of eggshells powder to attain paint and bioplastics markets. The company has established a global circular economy approach (use of local by-products, harvesting of pruning wastes for wood burning boiler and main sales of the products to local farmers).
The AgWI company is an expert in developing innovative agroecological products for plant nutrition based on the use of by-products and with a dual purpose: increasing the positive environmental impact of agriculture and sustainability of agricultural activity. AgWI currently has 2 products on the market, a biostimulant designed to improve the quality of vegetables crops, and a microgranulated fertilizer made from co-products of food industry water treatment.
The project to be funded aims to join the complementary expertise of these 2 companies in order to develop an innovative biostimulant based on egg membrane.
Thanks to this project, both SMEs will be promoted on a more resilient level, with an optimized biobased business model and a higher value chain by the valorization of the entire by-product materials produced by egg breaking industries. These industrial food wastes collected and transformed by Terremo’logic in eggshell powder (already valorized in commercial products) and in egg membranes which will be upgraded by means of this project into new innovative plant nutrition products, intended for local crops (primarily fodder corn, grasslands, oilseeds, greenhouse and field vegetables). This project will highlight the concepts of zero waste and circular economy.
The Valowasteagri project began a few months ago.
Terremo’logic first deliver a high-quality membrane powder samples and product a batch of dried micronized membranes for their use in formulation trials that will be designed by AgWI. They also provide a report of the membrane composition according to process conditions and storage.
AgWI and Terremo’logic will develop a formulation process of the membrane to develop a new biostimulant usable in agricultural machinery.
AgWI will then perform in vitro assay. The goal is to define product positioning of the new biostimulant prepared (dose, application time and target crops for the product). Once the agronomic effects have been identified and selected, larger-scale field trials will be carried out. AgWI will also be responsible for regulatory affairs relating to the project.
AgWI currently has, in its portfolio, two products on the market. AgWI’s ambitions is to diversify its offering in terms of products, crops and markets. The new product will occupy an increasingly important place in AgWI’s turnover: by 2026, around 20% of turnover, a proportion that will increase in the following years. Depending on the commercial result of the new product, 2 more people will be hired by AgWI at the end of 2026. Moreover, AgWI has industrial ambitions, with the set-up of a factory in Brittany.
For Terremo’logic, the high-quality membrane valorization will diversify the company’s activities and create new markets, particularly in agriculture. By 2026, the product developed from high-quality membranes would represent an 18% increase in Terremo’logic’s sales. With the new biostimulant forecasts, Terremo’logic will build a second plant that will employ at least one new operator and a quality manager.
“B-Resilient allowed us to work on a recovering our seaweed byproducts thanks to Ivamer expertise and help. The support of this European project we help us to work on this strategic subject.”