By Shain Kroenecke, Sr. VP of Nutrition, Food & Ag
For decades, industrial manufacturing has largely operated within a linear economic model: extract raw materials, manufacture products, and dispose of what remains. Today, increasing pressure on resources, rising sustainability expectations, and economic realities are driving a new approach — the circular economy.
A circular economy seeks to maximize the value of every material entering a manufacturing process. Instead of treating by-products and side streams as waste, they are viewed as valuable resources that can be recovered, improved, and transformed into high-margin products.
At AVEKA, this philosophy is already embedded in the toll manufacturing and process development work we do every day. From lab-scale trials to full-scale truckloads, we help partners transform underutilized materials into functional ingredients, specialty powders, engineered particles, agricultural products, and industrial materials.
“Circular economy should be viewed not simply as a sustainability initiative, but as a strategy for building more resilient and adaptable food systems. The real opportunity isn’t just finding value in underutilized food and agricultural streams; it’s designing systems that can reliably transform that value into commercially viable products. That requires science, engineering, supply chains, and business economics from the very beginning.”
-Head of Operations, AVEKA customer in the nutraceutical industry
What is a Side Stream?
Side streams are secondary materials generated during food, agricultural, chemical, mineral, and industrial processing operations.
Examples of common side streams include:
- Food & Agricultural: Fruit and vegetable pomace, protein-rich processing residues, fermentation by-products, grain fractions, and fiber streams
- Industrial & Specialty: Mineral fines, dust collection materials, off-specification powders, and functional chemical by-products
Historically, these materials found their way into landfills, low-value animal feed, or waste treatment plants. Yet many retain significant nutritional, chemical, or functional value. The primary challenge isn’t whether value exists—it is determining how to unlock it through precision particle technology.
AVEKA’s Role: Upcycling Through Precision Engineering
While many view the circular economy as basic recycling, the highest economic and environmental impact comes from upcycling—transforming existing materials into products worth significantly more than their original form.
Through particle engineering, drying, agglomeration, air classification, blending, and custom formulations, AVEKA helps turn limited-value streams into marketable products.
- Extending Shelf Life: Liquid streams that are unstable or costly to transport can be converted into shelf-stable powders via controlled spray drying or additive blending.
- Improving Functionality: Fine powders that present handling challenges can be agglomerated into free-flowing granules with enhanced dispersibility.
- Recovering High-Value Components: Air classification and precision separation concentrate valuable fractions like proteins, fibers, and minerals. Similarly, liquid filtration can extract target peptides and proteins from commodity streams.
- Enabling New Markets: By-products are reimagined as functional food ingredients, nutritional additives, agricultural treatments, or specialty chemical materials.
Circular Manufacturing in Action
Spent Coffee Grounds: What if hundreds of tons of spent coffee grounds per month could be processed into a functional food additive? Processing this stream diverts mass from landfills, replaces less sustainable ingredients, reduces emissions, and cuts costs without sacrificing flavor or performance.
Upcycled Dairy Protein: At our Fredericksburg, Iowa facility, we spent months developing a process to turn waste cheese into a clean, nutritious powder for animal milk replacers. In the Midwest alone, over 100 loads of “2nd quality” cheese—roughly 4.5 million pounds of protein-rich material—are available weekly. Diverting this material from landfills turns a massive waste problem into a commercial protein supply.
Where AVEKA Can Create Even More Value
As food, agriculture, and chemical markets continue to evolve, two main areas offer significant growth potential for circular materials:
- Food and Nutritional Ingredients
Food processing side streams rich in proteins, fibers, oils, and bioactive compounds can be engineered into:
- Functional food ingredients and protein concentrates
- Prebiotic fibers and clean-label additives
- Specialized nutritional supplements
- Precision Particle Engineering
Moving beyond simple material recovery, the future of circularity lies in engineered particle design. By combining recovered side streams with spray drying, microencapsulation, agglomeration, and custom particle shaping, AVEKA helps clients deliver differentiated, high-value products rather than low-margin commodities.
From Waste Reduction to Value Creation
The most successful circular economy projects do more than reduce waste; they create new markets, new products, and new revenue streams.
As industries search for scalable ways to improve profitability and sustainability, the market leaders will be those who see hidden value where others see waste. Transforming side streams into commercial opportunities requires an integrated approach to science, engineering, and market needs—and AVEKA is ready to help you build it.