The School of Energy and Environment at the City University of Hong Kong recently started collaborating with coffee retailer giant 'Starbucks Hong Kong' in 2012. The partnership focuses on the valorisation of spent coffee grounds and unconsumed bakeries to valuable products via bio-processing. The project has led to the production of bio-plastics and detergents from unconsumed bakeries via enzymatic hydrolysis of non pre-treated bakery waste, followed by fungal solid state fermentation to break down carbohydrates into simple sugars for subsequent succinic acid fermentation. A mixture of fungi comprising Asperillus awamori and Asperillus oryzae was utilised for the production of amylolytic and proteolytic enzymes, respectively. Macromolecules including starch and proteins contained in bakery waste were then hydrolysed into a bakery hydrolysate enriched in glucose and free amino nitrogen (FAN).  This hydrolysate was subsequently employed as generic feedstock in a bioreaction to produce polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) by Halomonas boliviensis.

Starbucks biorefinery development: Valorisation of bakery waste from Starbucks Hong Kong for the production of biodegradable plastics

245th National Meeting (2013)

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