Aberystwyth Scale-Up Biorefining Centre

 

 

Biorefining

Biorefining is a way to convert organic material into a range of useful products such as food additives, fuels, chemicals, and materials. IBERS biorefining pilot facility applies the latest innovations in bioprospecting, synthetic biology, biomass processing, fermentation, anaerobic digestion, and thermal conversion to add value to underutilised resources from agriculture, food production, and manufacturing. 

“Developing valuable solutions from natural resources.”

The facility focuses on supporting applied research and industrial collaborations through our research team and working in partnership with AberInnovation, the co-located Innovation and Enterprise Campus. A range of biological organisms can be used in our fermentation systems which can be tailored to convert a wide variety of organic materials such as grasses, energy crops, cereal straws, seaweeds, and industrial co-products into useful products, and their conversion processes optimised. A wide array of different pretreatments and downstream processes can be applied, and experiments performed at scales that range from small laboratory testing all the way up to pre-commercial scales (TRL 1-5).

Our facility and its team have over a decade of experience in applying biotechnology solutions to real-world problems and have assisted in hundreds of collaborative projects, both within the UK and around the world, helping researchers and businesses take the first vital steps toward commercialisation of their products or processes.

  • We have worked with Quorn Ltd to extract flavour enhancement compounds from their food-grade process side streams that enabled them to reduce the salt content in some of their products by up to 35%.
  • Our work with Fiberight Ltd has supported development of a process to convert black bin paper and card waste into free sugars that can be fermented into lactic acid, a platform chemical used to make biodegradable plastics, at a 1,000 litrescale.
  • Xylitol is a natural sweetener proven to prevent tooth decay and obesity in children, without the downsides of other artificial sweeteners. IBERS spinout company, Arkitek-Bio, has developed a process for producing xylitol from agricultural straws using a biological production process that is more environmentally friendly than the conventional chemical catalysis methods.

Biorefining and Bioprocessing - Our Facilities and Capabilities

The Aberystwyth Biorefining Centre, BEACON, is a scale-up capability offering a range of technologies to support innovators,  both academic and industrial, to develop and commercialise biobased processes and products.

For biorefining, this centre includes a Primary Processing facility (100-1,000 kg/hr) for screw-pressing feedstocks and producing pressed material for further processing and fuel production (e.g., pelletisation). A Downstream Processing facility provides food grade: size fractionation and separation capabilities (50-2,000 litres/hr), spray drying to finished powder products, and steam explosion for pressurised hydrothermal pre-treatment. The Pilot Fermentation Facility provides facilities at scales from 1-300 litres; and an automated system for assessing biogas potential of feedstocks. A Clean Room provides a high hygiene (ISO7) area for finishing (purifying/crystallising/drying) and bagging small-scale products (mg to kg) in a controlled atmosphere environment.

Over the last 20 years, we have worked on multiple collaborative biorefining projects, funded by regional, national and international agencies, enabling us to offer a unique plug-and-play pilot-scale facility managed by experienced staff.

Our scale-up facility operates at TRL 1-5 and provides capability for pre-treatment, fermentation and downstream processing. The range of pilot-scale equipment includes screwpresses, continuous centrifuges, membrane separation kit, bioreactors, fermenters and driers.

Our research focuses on enabling technologies and bio-process design, with key capabilities in:

  • Synthetic biology – enzyme & microbial discovery and development (TRL 1-3)
  • Separation & extraction – bulk separation technologies (TRL 2-5)
  • Biomass processing – thermochemical & biochemical pretreatment (TRL 2-5)
  • Fermentation science – bioconversion of feedstocks (TRL 2-5)
  • Anaerobic digestion – bioenergy and waste valorisation (TRL 1-3)
  • Downstream processing – purification and product recovery (TRL 2-5)

We work with diverse feedstocks, from energy crops and agricultural residues to seaweed and municipal waste, developing bio-based solutions for health food, cosmetics, green solvents, biocomposites, bioenergy, and bioplastics/packaging industries.

The centre employs a multidisciplinary approach, bringing together biologists, chemical engineers, computer scientists and industry to address the challenges of commercialising biotechnological developments using a wide range of biobased feedstocks.

For more information, please contact: biorefining@aber.ac.uk

360º Virtual Walkthrough

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