Industrial scale-up of BIOSCHAMP biostimulants: Fertinagro Biotech obtains successful results in the first tests

The research project BIOSCHAMP works to offer an integral and sustainable solution for the challenges faced by the mushroom industry in Europe: working both to reduce the use of pesticides while promoting mushroom growth.

The BIOSCHAMP project develops biostimulants that are to be incorporated to an improved substrate formula (developed also within the scope of the project), preparing mushroom crops to better fight the attack of pathogens. FERTINAGRO BIOTECH oversees the industrial scaling up for the microorganisms that take part in the bio-stimulation process. In more detail, the scaling up work necessary for this process is being carried out at the facilities of the company in Teruel, Spain.

Development of the scale up process so far

The work so far is focusing on the selection of the best strains for industrial scale up. In this process, CTICH, Centro tecnológico de Investigación del Champiñón (Project coordinator), has sent solid culture plates of the six bacterial strains previously identified and selected by Oxford University (project partner active in research).

From here, Fertinagro has assessed the purity and quality of the cultures, and then started the process of “liquid cultivation” in an enriched environment created to understand the evolution of the strains.

At present, Fertinagro Biotech is working on the trials with the strains in a 50L bioreactor: measuring and adjusting indicators – like temperature, the ratio of necessary gasses for the cultures or agitation speeds – to optimise the parameters and be able to scale up to a higher volume: 10 cubic meters. By the end of the trial process, the number of bacteria that are still alive are counted.

The team from Fertinagro Biotech is very happy and satisfied with the results so far: in the first testing results, it has been possible to obtain amounts of alive bacteria higher than 10⁹for the 6 strains tested.

Scale up: next steps for BIOSCHAMP

The results obtained in this scale-up testing will be sent back to CTICH, who will carry out further trials with mushroom crops. The results from this second round of trials will provide information on which are the best strains to choose for industrial scale-up.

The goal of this research is to contribute to the reduction (or even elimination) of the use of phytosanitary products in mushroom cultivation. At the same time, reducing the dependency over pesticides and increasing the profitability and sustainability of the mushroom sector in Europe.

About Fertinagro Biotech

Fertinagro Biotech, S.L., is a Spanish company that produces an extensive range of fertilizers. Fertinagro belongs to the Tervalis Desarrollo business group, a leading supplier of fertilizers for agriculture in Spain.

Fertinagro is one of the project partnes of the BIOSCHAMP project. Among other tasks, it works on the scale up of the BIOSCHAMP biostimulant solution.

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Marga Pérez: direccion@ctich.com
Jaime Carrasco: j.carrasco@ctich.com

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 101000651.

Contact points

Marga Pérez: direccion@ctich.com
Jaime Carrasco: j.carrasco@ctich.com