Grants aid development of sustainability projects

Specialists at the University of South Wales (USW) have received a total of around £1.5m for research into a variety of sustainability projects. 

The three developments have been funded by grants from Sêr Cymru, a multi-million-pound Welsh Government funding programme which is designed to bring scientific talent into research posts in Wales.

Professor Alan Guwy, Head of USW’s Sustainable Environment Research Centre (SERC) - £474,968 - The VFA Factory

The project will pioneer the use of microbial conversion processes to produce versatile high-value sustainable platform chemicals in the form of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) from municipal and industrial waste streams.

This will turn pollutants into feedstocks for chemical manufacture, reducing dependence on petrochemicals and lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

Anaerobic digestion – a process by which organic matter such as animal or food waste is broken down to produce biogas and biofertiliser - is an important part of the UK’s circular economy that derives value from waste. The current system of gate fees and subsidies means that anaerobic digestion is overwhelmingly used to produce methane from biomass sources, but this is changing. 

Additionally, methane is also a potent greenhouse gas, with a global warming potential more than  80 times that of CO2. Fugitive emissions from AD can be more than 3% of the gas produced. So, by converting recently fixed CO2 into CH4, conventional AD paradoxically contributes to global warming.

Evidence already supports the feasibility of producing VFAs via anaerobic digestion, both from biomass sources and gaseous waste streams, such as those from steel manufacture and construction.  VFAs, such as acetate, butyrate, and propionate, are essential for the production of polymers, plastics, fuels, solvents, paints, food additives, and pharmaceutical products. The global market for carboxylates exceeds €1.5bn, and demand is constantly growing.

USW, together with its industry partners in the VFA Factory, will transition this technology from laboratory-research to an industrially-relevant circular technology which benefits the Welsh economy, environment, and society.

The work will ultimately lead to a closed loop biorefining process where the waste products produced by industry are used to provide the chemicals and materials they consume.

Professor Sandra Esteves, Professor in Bioprocess Technology for Resource Recovery and Director of the Wales Centre of Excellence for Anaerobic Digestion at USW – £503,000

Most aspects of our everyday lives are dependent on the availability and use of plastics. Whilst their full eradication will be very challenging to achieve, it is imperative that we reduce their use, replace them with more environmentally friendly alternatives, and achieve effective recycling of all types of polymers.

The vast majority of polymers are produced using fossil carbon, a finite resource that contributes towards global warming. These polymers cause pollution in our soils, rivers, and oceans, and their accumulation and long-term degradation is impacting on climate change and biodiversity. The recycling of many fossil-based polymers has also proved difficult from technical and economic perspectives.

Biopolymers which can be biologically derived from a variety of organic wastes and carbon-based waste gases, and that can be biologically recycled, are realistic alternatives that require academic and industrial collaboration in order to develop active and efficient production and recycling supply chains.

The Ser Cymru-funded ‘biopol 4 life' project aims to develop understanding and drive innovation in industrial biotechnology (IB) production and recycling of microbial-derived polyesters and polyamides, and update research and demonstration facilities across Wales.

The project will concentrate on the whole lifecycle of the polyesters and polyamides, from feedstocks, polymer production, and processing, to end-of-life impact and circular recovery.

These areas of specialisation require multidisciplinary skills and cutting-edge research facilities that build upon integral collaboration between three Welsh R&D centres of excellence.

The academic team, together with industrial collaborators, will develop new processes and products and will transfer knowhow to support and develop clean growth and a green bioeconomy, contributing to the health and well-being of society. The project will help to establish a virtual Centre of Excellence in Biopolymers in Wales.

biopol 4 life is part funded by the Welsh Government, the EU Regional Development Fund (ERDF), as administered by the Welsh European Funding Office (WEFO), and the participating institutions – the University of South Wales, Bangor University, and Aberystwyth University.

Dr Gareth Owen - Associate Professor in Inorganic Chemistry  - £490,000

There has never been such an urgency to address carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. This is a matter of global significance.

This project will focus on the activation of carbon dioxide, and its transformation into valuable chemicals which can be used in a number of sectors, including the pharmaceutical industry, as raw materials for industrial applications and as starting materials for a plethora of new materials.

This research programme will specifically focus on the development on new synthetic strategies and open up new pathways which will allow various industries to utilise this readily available resource for the synthesis of new compounds.

Carbon dioxide is one of the most difficult molecules to activate. Despite significant efforts from synthetic chemists worldwide, the required key discovery has yet to be realised. Preliminary results suggest potential routes are feasible by its activation utilising transition metal compounds. The research within this programme will aim to mimicking some of those transformations found in metalloenzymes to achieve this challenging goal.