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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - LIBBIO (Lupinus mutabilis for Increased Biomass from marginal lands and value for BIOrefineries)

Teaser

Summary

Securing sufficient and sustainable biomass supply for both the food/feed industry and for the growing biobased market is a key challenge for the agricultural sector and also an opportunity for its further growth. Natural resources are limited and a more efficient and sustainable exploitation of land and water is required to preserve them for continued use; at the same time, the market demand for food is increasing due to growing population, as is the demand for agricultural biomass to be converted into materials and chemicals. The challenge is to achieve more with less: crops that deliver a higher and constant yield, and/or resilient crops that require less water and nutrients and/or crops that can grow on marginal lands.
Lupins, especially the large crop Lupinus mutabilis, could be an excellent choice for meeting these challenges as it grows well on marginal lands without much fertilising and it is high in oil and protein content. The overall objective of LIBBIO is to develop consumer food, feed, non-food and bio-energy products from Andean lupin varieties (Lupinus mutabilis) adapted to European farming conditions by applying bio-refinery cascading principles for crop value creation and modern crop breeding technologies. Also, to increase crop yield and harvest index and accelerate supply chain development via a consumer-driven approach for developing high value-added food and non-food products by applying state-of-the-art fossil-solvent-free technology for raw material processing

Work performed

In the first period of project implementation the focus has been on breeding and selecting suitable varieties for European conditions from the varieties available in Europe and from S-America. Seeds have been propagated of many varieties and the first cropping trials performed in seven European countries with very different conditions. Protocols for Lupinus mutabilis cropping are being developed.
Biorefinery process development has also started for separation of oil, protein and other valuable fractions. The advantages of PEF pre-treatment of the lupin beans are investigated and both mechanical processing of oil and supercritical CO2 extraction of oil and other fractions.

Final results

Project progress is in line with expectations and most likely that the project objectives will be reached at the end of the project. As time goes by the project is expected to contribute to increase value of agricultural production. It introduces additional sources of income for the farmers, increase of the economic output of the production chain for biorefinery operators, by focusing on industrial productive crop with multiple applications. Introducing these options to farmers and other stakeholders is an integrated part of the LIBBIO project.