The Business of Biorefining
In April 2021, AberInnovation hosted a webinar in collaboration with BEACON Biorefining in order to highlight the imperative of shifting towards a bio-based economy in the fight against climate change and to demonstrate how the ‘business of biorefining’ plays a vital role in this cultural shift. The webinar was led by two Aberystwyth University experts, Professor Joe Gallagher and Dr Judith Thornton.
About BEACON
BEACON is a partnership between Aberystwyth, Bangor, Swansea Universities and the University of South Wales, working with businesses in the field of conversion of biomass and biowastes into biobased products with commercial applications. It works with companies to produce new products and processes as well as helping improve existing processes in terms of economic and environmental sustainability. Led by Aberystwyth University, BEACON has been backed by funding from the European Regional Development Fund through Welsh Government and has been a huge success with many favorable case studies to hand.
BEACON exists in order to help Welsh businesses explore biobased opportunities for growth by providing access to a wide range of specialist equipment and scientific expertise across four partner institutions. BEACON offers an array of biorefining-related equipment and a ‘one-stop-shop’ solution as well as seamless technology adaptation at our Biorefining Centre in Aberystwyth.
What is Biorefining?
Biorefining is the sustainable processing of biomass in order to produce fuel, feed, power and chemicals. Biorefining fractionates biomass into a range of useful materials using biological, bio-chemical, chemical and physical transformation technologies. The resulting materials can have several beneficial applications. These inherent circular economy principles mean that biorefining has a key role to play as we move to more sustainable and circular modes of production and consumption.
Biorefining spans a range of sectors including packaging (alternatives to plastic), food industry (extracting value from by-products, developing functional foods, etc.), pharmaceuticals, biobased construction materials, chemicals and biofuels.
What Benefits Does a Thriving Bio-economy Offer?
- Increased emphasis on longevity of products and design for reuse (transitioning to the circular economy)
- The redesign of products currently made from fossil fuels
- New and growing markets as consumers become more conscious and discerning
- Resurgence of rural economies – the source of natural materials
The Journey to a Net-zero Society
Respecting environmental limits will mean that in the proposed net-zero society of 2050, we’ll be making minimal use of fossil fuels in all walks of life - how will we get there?
- Decarbonised electricity production
- Substantial increase in electricity demand (electrification of transport, home heating)
- Carbon sequestration to offset hard to decarbonise sectors and historic emissions
- New products and services created without needing fossil fuels
Biorefining Success at Aberystwyth University
For the second half of the event, Professor Joe Gallagher described some of the latest research at the University, which has seen the development of producing a natural low-calorie sweetener – Xylitol - from cereal straw, an agricultural waste stream. Leading this exciting proposition are ARCITEKBio, an Aberystwyth University spin-out CleanTech company, resident at the AberInnovation Incubator.
ARCITEKBio, with the support of BEACON Biorefining, have developed a biotechnological solution to produce Xylitol: a sustainable, low-cost bio-manufactured alternative for the sweetener industry.
Through collaborating with BEACON and partners, ARCITEKBio have developed:
- Flexible, scalable biotechnology to add value to waste streams from multiple sectors
- Complete process performance, validated by 3rd party pilot trials
- Technology that is backed by end-users
- Opportunity to de-risk ‘process commercialisation’ by doing technology scale-up to commercial level
Can We Help You?
Our co-located collaborators and experts share a common goal: finding innovative and sustainable solutions to some of the 21st Century’s biggest challenges.
If you are a business based in Wales who shares our vision and are in need of support for your research and development, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Contacts
Professor Joe Gallagher, Aberystwyth University | [email protected]
Dr Rebecca Charnock, Industrial Research Development Manager, AberInnovation | [email protected]
