HORIZON-JU-CBE-2026-IAFlag-04: Diversification of nutritional food ingredient sources for increased EU resilience and strategic autonomy

Bondalti Water can act as an industrial integrator and deployment partner for flagship biorefinery value chains producing nutritional food ingredients from alternative sources, by providing the critical infrastructure and know-how that determine industrial viability and safety: feedstock conditioning, water and utility integration, wastewater/side-stream management, contamination control, and performance digitalisation. This aligns directly with the topic’s goal to demonstrate at TRL 8 an industrial-scale biorefinery/value chain for nutritional ingredients and to improve resilience through diversified ingredient sources.

What we can contribute (work packages / tasks)

• Circular feedstock and side-stream integration (urban/industrial streams): engineering interfaces to convert suitable urban and/or industrial waste streams and other in-scope bio-based feedstocks into food-grade ingredient value chains, with robust variability management and hygiene-by-design.

• Water-smart process integration for biotech production (TRL 8 readiness): design and optimisation of water loops, utilities (steam/cooling/CIP), and effluent treatment to reduce OPEX and environmental footprint (water/energy/nutrients), supporting the topic’s sustainability drivers.

• Contaminants/pathogen risk prevention in circular models: treatment barriers, monitoring plans, and operational protocols to ensure that when circularity is pursued, pathogens/contaminants are not reintroduced into loops, consistent with the topic requirements.

• Downstream integration support: practical integration of separation/purification side streams (wash waters, concentrates, brines, solids) into a compliant and resource-efficient site concept, enabling stable continuous operation.

• Monitoring, data infrastructure and modelling: online sensing strategies, data pipelines, and hybrid modelling to evidence performance at scale (availability, mass balances, water/energy intensity, stability), accelerating learning during commissioning and ramp-up.

• Regulatory and safety evidence package (support role): operational data collection and documentation to support safety assessment in line with EU regulatory requirements and EFSA guidance, and contribution to identifying practical bottlenecks for scale-up and authorisation.

• Multi-actor implementation support: participation in early-stage co-design with end-users/consumers by translating technical constraints into measurable product/acceptance KPIs and by enabling transparent environmental performance reporting.

Keyword / tags:

IA Flagship; TRL 8; nutritional ingredients; alternative sources; proteins; lipids; fibres; specialty carbohydrates; circularity; water efficiency; wastewater integration; contaminants & pathogen barriers; EFSA-aligned safety evidence; digital monitoring; industrial deployment; resilience and strategic autonomy.