New project is turning waste products into biodegradable packaging

Scientists in South Wales are taking part in a multi-million-euro research project that is looking at ways of turning waste such as sewage and food waste into biodegradable packaging for consumer goods.

The University of South Wales (USW) is part of the three-year €3m Horizon 2020-funded project which is combining a range of biological techniques to produce alternatives to petroleum based plastics.

The project – Res Urbis (RESources from URban Bio-waSte) – is aiming to use   waste to produce new environmentally-friendly bioproducts, as well as exploring ways to extract energy and nutrients.

The team hope that the bioproducts will then be used in packaging applications, particularly for durable goods such as computers, tablets and phones, with lower environmental impact than current polymer based materials.

There’s a total of 21 institutions and enterprises across eight European countries contributing to the project, which is being co-ordinated by the University of Rome, La Sapienza.

A team from Sustainable Environment Research Centre (SERC) at the USW is leading the South Wales Cluster, working with Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, Rhondda Cynon Taff County Borough Council, and Cardiff City Council to evaluate the availability of raw materials.

Professor Alan Guwy, Head of SERC, said: “Using municipal solid waste – food waste – and the excess sludge from wastewater to produce alternative forms of energy is not new. However, the integrated and flexible “bio-waste biorefinery approach” in Res Urbis aims to create new bio-based products as well as bioenergy from wastes, which could potentially offer a more profitable way of using organic waste.

“USW will be focusing on the acid fermentation of an innovative waste biorefinery process.  We will be developing ways of producing hydrogen and volatile fatty acids (VFAs) from food waste and sludge from urban wastewater. The VFAs that are produced will provide the feedstock for the next step in the process, and the production of the new bioproducts  

“The development and integration of innovative technologies, such as those proposed in this project, with existing anaerobic digestion techniques allow the transformation of significant amounts of organic material into useful bioproducts. They will have a high market value, with positive impacts on the environment, economy and employment.”

The USW team comprises Professor Guwy, alongside Professor Iano Premier, Professor Richard Dinsdale, Dr Jaime Massanet Nicolau and Dr Tim Patterson.