{"id":40819,"date":"2017-02-24T07:32:09","date_gmt":"2017-02-24T06:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=40819"},"modified":"2018-02-15T13:47:31","modified_gmt":"2018-02-15T12:47:31","slug":"beacon-from-plants-to-products-a-biorefining-centre-of-excellence-in-wales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/beacon-from-plants-to-products-a-biorefining-centre-of-excellence-in-wales\/","title":{"rendered":"BEACON \u2013 From Plants to Products \u2013 a Biorefining Centre of Excellence in Wales"},"content":{"rendered":"

Led by Aberystwyth University\u2019s Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Science (IBERS), in collaboration with its partners at Bangor and Swansea Universities, the BEACON initiative<\/a> integrates expertise and facilities to assist companies in developing new products and processes or to upgrade existing processes, using low carbon technologies including biomass where possible. Backed with \u00a38 million from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), BEACON aims to establish Wales as a Biorefining Centre of Excellence and make a vital contribution to mitigating climate change and growing the Welsh bioeconomy.<\/p>\n

Increasing awareness of the environmental impact and resource limitation of producing chemicals, materials, transport fuels and energy from fossil fuels such as natural gas, coal and oil is driving a reappraisal of how best to manufacture these products. Plant biomass is the world\u2019s largest biorenewable resource that can be converted (biorefined) into innovative, sustainable transport fuels, fibre, chemical and pharmaceutical commodities to help grow the Welsh bioeconomy. BEACON researchers partner with companies operating in a range of sectors, providing access to expertise and pilot scale biorefining facilities, bringing sustainable innovations closer to domestic and international market deployment. As such, public-private partnerships with BEACON have the potential to support economic growth and job creation, while revolutionising the traditional manufacturing base.
\nPartnering with BEACON offers a company access to the broad range of expertise available at the three Welsh Universities along with some unique Welsh processing facilities. In addition to developing new products and processes, engagement with BEACON can result in the creation of preliminary data or assessment of \u2018proof of concept\u2019 ideas and technologies than can attract investment or support further funding to help drive innovation.<\/p>\n

What is biorefining?<\/p>\n

Biorefining takes organic material e.g. plants and uses a series of mechanical, biological and chemical processes to convert the biomass into a broad range of commercially important products including pharmaceuticals, transport fuels, energy sources and chemicals.<\/p>\n

The benefits of biorefining<\/p>\n

Replacing some of the industrial chemicals produced from oil with similar molecules from plants that could supply potentially lucrative markets within easy reach of Welsh producers.
\nTurning crops like rye grass, miscanthus and oats into valuable fuels and chemicals would cut back on greenhouse gases and increase fuel and chemical security whilst adding value to the Welsh economy.
\nChemicals derived from plants have uses in a range of sectors, including transport, food, health, hygiene and the environment.
\nProducing new materials such as bio-composites and bio-plastics. As well as creating and safeguarding jobs in West Wales and the Valleys, the pioneering work will help develop science in Wales.<\/p>\n

Key areas of focus for BEACON include:<\/p>\n

Bio-based and bio-degradable packaging materials for the packaging and retail industries.
\nLow carbon materials for use by the transport and construction industries that are lighter in weight and have improved insulation properties.
\nPlatform chemicals (e.g. lactate and succinate) that are building blocks used by the chemical industry for the production of biopolymers for industrial materials.
\nSeparation technologies to provide products for the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and chemical industries.
\nDevelopment of solutions for end-of-life products (e.g. polyethylene) to meet the needs of the chemical industry and society in general.
\nPyrolysis to create biochar and activated carbon for filtration and bioremediation.
\nThe integration of gasification and biotechnology as a source of chemical building blocks and fuels.
\nMicrobial development for improved production of chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
\nIndustrial symbiosis, the holistic treatment of products and processes to minimise waste and maximise value.
\nProcess optimisation and sustainability including greenhouse gas inventories through life cycle assessment coupled to technoeconomic analysis of processes.<\/p>\n

The Aim of BEACON<\/p>\n

The main aim of BEACON is to use the concept of biorefining to work with end user companies, in order to identify a wide range of products from plant material which are tailored to their requirements.<\/p>\n

The biorefinery concept uses non-food crop feedstocks in much the same way that oil refineries use crude oil to produce a broad spectrum of commodity products. It seeks to give manufacturing companies a commercial advantage in the marketing of these renewable products as well in the future environmental and economic sustainability of their businesses through application of these developing technologies.
\nBEACON offers businesses with interests in the biorefining sector access to the research, expertise and knowledge base of universities in Wales.<\/p>\n

BEACON helps:<\/p>\n

Companies in the construction, packaging and manufacturing industries by developing new biocomposite materials
\nThe bioscience industry \u2013 for example, developing new microbial or enzyme systems and technologies for the processing of biomass
\nThe chemical industry by providing new sources of \u2018green\u2019 chemicals<\/p>\n

Rural communities by<\/p>\n

a) applying biorefinery technology to the processing of non-food crops
\nb) offering alternative markets for existing biomass
\nc) creating skilled jobs<\/p>\n

Examples of the work BEACON partners can undertake:<\/p>\n

Formulation of new biocomposites
\nExtrusion \/ bioplastics
\nNovel chemistries \/ applications
\nMetabolic engineering of yeasts
\nProtein modelling such as new enzymes for e.g. food industry or bioprocessing<\/p>\n

BEACON has a number of core strategic activities. These are:<\/p>\n

Understanding how to efficiently process wet biomass using mechanical and physicochemical technologies
\nConversion of lignocellulose biomass into biofuels
\nConversion of wet biomass into platform chemicals and fine chemicals
\nDeveloping and enhancing enzymes and microbial systems for the production of products such as fine chemicals and transport fuels
\nIsolating commercially important molecules using membrane technologies and supercritical fluids
\nProduction of bioplastics from biomass
\nProduction of biobased packaging from biomass
\nDeveloping \u2018End of Life\u2019 methodologies associated with pyrolysis and the production of biochar and bio-oil
\nEvaluation of processing routes from biomass to products and developing the associated economic modelling<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

BEACON have added value to our company through the use of pilot-scale equipment which is not currently available at any other organization we know about.<\/em> Robert Nash \u2013 Director, Phytoquest<\/p>\n

BEACON has provided considerable support to Pennotec, including providing network support for the future development of the business and a compelling Technology Strategy Board grant application. Jonathan Hughes<\/em> \u2013 Director, Pennotec<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Led by Aberystwyth University\u2019s Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Science (IBERS), in collaboration with its partners at Bangor and Swansea Universities, the BEACON initiative integrates expertise and facilities to assist companies in developing new products and processes or to upgrade existing processes, using low carbon technologies including biomass where possible. Backed with \u00a38 million […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[11286,5838,12584],"supplier":[874,5193,7730,823],"class_list":["post-40819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-biocomposites","tag-bioeconomy","tag-biorefineries","supplier-aberystwyth-university","supplier-bangor-university","supplier-european-regional-development-fund","supplier-swansea-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40819\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40819"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=40819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}