BioBoost

This project aims to stimulate a biobased development in horticulture in Europe. In Bioboost triple helix partners from the Netherlands, Belgium and the United Kingdom work together to stimulate the development of a biobased economy in horticulture.

BioBoost addresses the need for an environmentally friendly and resource efficient economy that focuses on horticulture, by using plant resources in a more sustainable, efficient and integrated way. Although the horticulture industry presents multifaceted societal benefits, the need for transitioning towards a biobased economy has been largely overlooked so far.

There is a lot of potential, but development, testing and uptake of green innovations is slow due to the suboptimal interaction between researchers and SMEs, problematic financing and a lack of cross-disciplinary working methods and effective support strategies.

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Activities:

Processing residual streams fruits and vegetables

Developing and testing of processes, techniques and products based on residues from fruit and vegetable production.

Insect breeding

Testing of horticultural waste streams as bedding material for the breeding of insects.

Chipboard production from green residuals

Testing of a small scale chipboard production unit and individual process steps. 

Green pesticides

Building and testing of a pilot facility for the production of green pesticides.

 

Harvesting techniques

Finding the optimal logistic solutions for harvesting and collecting of vegetable residues. 

Natural plant materials for cosmetic, beauty and health industry

Pilot projects have been set up to extract natural plant pigments from fruit and vegetable by-product waste. Currently Blackberry, Beetroot, Tomato and Strawberry are being investigated.

Learning material on horticulture and bioeconomy

Learning material on horticulture and bioeconomy.

Proof of concept insect breeding

In the proof of concept, the feasibility of an efficient horticultural waste-to-nutrient solution is tested in a small scale production facility.

Stabilisation of horticultural waste, value adding techniques and recipe development

Testing of stabilisation and conservation techniques on the main horticultural waste streams.

Open innovation platform

A virtual web based platform that provides information about new and innovative applications of horticultural waste.

Regional cooperation

Regional platforms are established in the three regions to stimulate the bioeconomy.

 

Inventory and strategy

Inventory that describes the present state of horticultural bioeconomy which is input for the development of a strategy/approach to stimulate the transition of the horticulture to a bioeconomy.

All our activities

Outputs

  • Specific approach to support the transition to a horticultural bioeconomy
  • 3 Regional bioeconomy partnerships that facillitate SMEs (UK, BE, NL)
  • Yearly action plan including regional activities (UK, BE, NL)
  • Bioeconomy awareness and activation campaign
  • Open innovation platform biobased horticulture
  • 9 Pilot activities dealing with horticultural waste streams and byproducts for use for food, feed, green pesticides, materials, pharmaceutics and cosmetics

                                                               

Partners