The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) is to lead a European collaborative project aimed at transforming food waste into a sustainable source of economically valuable material.
The project, entitled ‘PlasCarb’, is specifically aiming to split the biogas that occurs when waste is anaerobically digested into graphene and renewable hydrogen. This will be achieved by using a “low energy microwave plasma process.”
The CPI claims that its existing infrastructure will allow for the process “to be trialled and optimised at pilot production scale, with a future technology roadmap devised for commercial scale manufacturing.” It could save British businesses at least £5bn every year and help resolve the issue of food wastage at an annual rate of 90m tonnes worldwide, according its own figures.
Dr Keith Robson, director of formulation and flexible manufacturing for the CPI, said: “PlasCarb will provide an innovative solution to the problems associated with food waste, which is one of the biggest challenges that the European Union faces in the strive towards a low carbon economy. The project will not only seek to reduce food waste but also use new technological methods to turn it into renewable energy resources which themselves are of economic value, and all within a sustainable manner.”
The project also involves two other British companies – Uvasol and GAP Waste Management – as well as two firms from Norway and one each from Germany, France and Hungary.
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