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Our £1.5 million project to convert waste into new biodegradable plastic materials begins...

Writer's picture: Jags PandhalJags Pandhal

June finally arrived! This means we begin our EPSRC £1.5 million project looking to exploit defined co-cultures of algae and bacteria to treat industrial waste streams. The concept is not to only take up nutrients, but also use the power of the sun and atmospheric CO2 to generate biomass. The resulting cells will be used to extract polymers, PHA and cellulose. We are leading the project and collaborating with Ipsita Roy in Materials Science and Engineering. We are also working with Prof. Tom Welton at Imperial College, London, who will develop a recyclable ionic liquids process to extract biochemials. Dr. Chaoying Wan at the Warwick Manufacturing Group will covert polymers into biodegradable coatings and films. Freeland Horticulture are providing us with their nutrient rich leachates and Unilever will test our products. Finally, Prof. Sol Brown will evaluate the process using a techno economic assessment.


Can't wait to see exciting results from this, and working with the 4 co-I's and 6 PDRA's.



Screengrab! Our opening online meeting

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Alaa Hassan Al-Fartoosy

PhD student

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