Meet our Biorefining Technologist
Have you met our Biorefining Technologist? Let’s find out more about Andrew Rowbottom.
Q. Tell us a little bit about your career so far?
I’m an engineer with 30 years of experience in renewable energy, ranging from remote data logging of meteorological data to installing solar-powered vaccine refrigerators in Africa. I grew up on a farm and had a spell with a company that manufactured commercial-scale bread and biscuit manufacturing equipment.
Q. How did you come to work at AberInnovation?
During the first COVID-19 lockdown I started studying towards an MSc with Aberystwyth University’s BioInnovation Wales programme, I was keen to learn something new. Through chance, around the same time, I saw a Biorefining Technologist post at AberInnovation come up, and I jumped at the opportunity to link my broad engineering experience with my MSc studies. The diversity of my day-to-day tasks is a big plus for me!
Q. What has been the most rewarding thing you've done at AberInnovation so far?
It has to be getting the fermentation suite up and running in the Biorefining Centre. The pilot fermentation unit is a food-grade facility suitable for conventional fermentative and novel biotech products at an industrially relevant scale. We’re now able to operate fermentation in 1 litre, 30 litre, 70 litre and 340 litre bioreactors for various projects.
Q. What do you see in store for AberInnovation's future?
Society must move forward to bio-based circular economy supply chains, leaving behind fossil-based linear supply chains. My role within AberInnovation gives me the opportunity to make a real contribution to that change. We have a fantastic range of equipment available for our customers to utilise to process bio-materials and pursue their research. I’m continuing to develop my knowledge of the processes involved – the combination of physics, engineering and bioscience is amazing!
Finally, our aim is to always support our customers to achieve their R&D goals in a low-risk environment.
