AquaInSilico (AIS) is a consortium partner in SOWISE+ (Solid Organic Waste Into Sustainable End-Products), a flagship Horizon Europe Innovation Action project selected for funding. The project brings together 25 partners from 9 European countries and has a total budget of approximately €23.19 million.
SOWISE+ project
SOWISE+ will establish Europe's first fully integrated, industrial-scale multipurpose biorefinery, converting urban biowaste into bioplastics and recovering cellulose from post-consumer absorbent hygiene products. Hosted by Contarina S.p.A. — an urban waste management company in Italy — the facility will produce up to 230 tonnes per year of PHBV biodegradable bioplastic and up to 700 tonnes per year of virgin-like cellulose, demonstrating a new circular model for urban waste valorisation at TRL 8 and establishing a reference model for integrated urban-industrial symbiosis that can be replicated across Europe.
AIS's role
Within SOWISE+, AIS holds sole responsibility for designing, developing and deploying the next-generation digital monitoring and predictive control system for the biowaste-to-PHBV production line. AIS will build and implement a Model Predictive Control (MPC) system combining mechanistic process models with machine learning techniques including principal component analysis (PCA) and artificial neural networks (ANN), IoT monitoring, and continuous model calibration. The system will enable real-time prediction of critical process parameters, multi-objective optimisation to maximise PHBV yield, and predictive maintenance through anomaly detection.
“SOWISE+ demonstrates the tangible value of our UPWATER™ platform in advancing bio-based resource recovery. This highlights a significant opportunity for both utilities and industrial stakeholders to embrace more sustainable, circular systems along with additional revenue streams. We are proud to provide the digital backbone for what will become Europe's most advanced circular biorefinery.”
About AIS
AIS is a Portuguese deep-tech company and spin-off from NOVA University Lisbon, co-founded with Frontier IP Group. AIS powers UPWATER™ and UPWASTE — AI-powered digital twin platforms for organic waste and wastewater treatment facilities, turning complex biological processes predictable, efficient and profitable.