On 1 July 2019, Wales Centre for Excellence for Anaerobic Digestion (USW) became a member of a collaborative partnership between Aberystwyth, Bangor and Swansea Universities and the University of South Wales working in the field of conversion of biomass and biowastes into biobased products with commercial applications. 

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Beacon primarily helps Welsh business explore biobased opportunities for growth by providing access to wide-ranging specialist equipment and scientific expertise at our four partner institutions.

 

We can help:

• Businesses valorise their waste streams, gaining added value from the by-products of their manufacturing processes
• The Construction, Packaging and Manufacturing industries by developing new biocomposite materials
• The Bioscience industry by developing new microbial or enzyme systems and technologies for the processing of biomass
• The Chemical industry by providing new sources of ‘green’ chemicals
• Fuel producers by offering ‘green’ fuels, impacting on the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) and reducing carbon emissions
• Energy producers by trialling different feedstocks and bioenergy crops
• Rural communities by applying biorefinery technology to the processing of non-food crops

 

For more information please click here.

The BEACON partners can undertake:

• Formulation of new biocomposites
• Extrusion / bioplastics
• Novel chemistries / applications
• Metabolic engineering of yeasts
• Protein modelling such as new enzymes, e.g. for food industry or bioprocessing

The Wales AD Centre at USW concentrates on technological solutions for:

• Biological conversions of materials to fuels, polymers, intermediates or novel products
• Optimisation of industrial bioconversion processes
• value added integrations with other key industries (e.g. renewable energy and the green chemical and plastics sector)

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Project partners:

Project is funded by European Regional Development Fund