We are happy to announce the start of Bio-Based Digital Twins (BBTWINS) project aiming to develop a digital platform for the optimisation of agri-food value chain processes and the supply of quality biomass for bioprocessing in the EU.
The EU agri-food sector is at a crossroads. The sector endures a string of crisis, suffering from losses and inefficiencies that affect the overall system efficiency, whilst the society expects always more to be done on environmental protection, and on providing secure, nutritional, and healthy food, demanding high added value products of sustainable production and verifiable traceability.
To tackle these challenges, BBTWINS will develop and validate two innovative digital twins in two use cases in Spain and Greece (meat and fruit production) following a multi-actor approach and integrating into a single platform all the processing steps (from crop to final products) and the valorisation of the bio-streams generated using innovative processing treatments.
The use cases will be addressed following a holistic approach including an environmental, social, and economic assessment, and logistic issues. The digital twins developed will integrate enabling technologies such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and software analytics, together with blockchain and strategic and operational logistic solutions in a single platform.
BBTWINS digital twins will:
- increase biomass availability, resource efficiency and sustainability for the bio-based industry
- lower biomass losses from feedstock supply through the processing stages of the value chain
- allow a longer storage time before processing through more efficient pre-treatment steps and storage methods to better preserve the valuable components.
BBTWINS will validate at least 3 new products for the bio-based industry such as bioactive compounds for nutritional foods and nutraceutical products, fertilizers, protein concentrates for feed, and snacks.
The BBTWINS multi-actor consortium, coordinated by CTIC-CITA (Spain), includes in total 3 RTOs (including VTT), 7 SMEs, 1 Bioeconomy Cluster, 1 Large Enterprise, and 1 cooperative in 8 EU countries with the necessary knowledge and ambition to succeed in the digital revolution of the agri-food sector. Project duration is 48 months (1 June 2021 − 31 May 2022) and has a budget of around 4 Million Euros. Follow the project on Twitter and LinkedIn or read more from VTT's Research Information Portal.
This project has received funding from the Bio Based Industries Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreement No 101023334. The JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and the Bio Based Industries Consortium.
