Pathway To A Marine Biorefinery
Lead Participant:
LINK2ENERGY LIMITED
Abstract
Pathway To A Marine Biorefinery
The UK Seafood processing industry produces a significant amount of waste, primarily in the form of offal, bones, heads and skins. The industry is already very mindful of resource efficiency, and some secondary grade materials are minced and used within a variety of products. However, there still exists approximately 250,000 tpa of material deemed unusable directly in the human food chain.
For some of these arisings, there are established markets, such as pet food or proteinaceous fishmeal. Fish waste is known to contain unexploited resources including fish protein hydrolysate, protein concentrate, enzymes, leather, fertilisers, collagen, gelatine, biofuels and pharmaceuticals which are all highly specialised with potential for producing valuable products. In addition previous work by The Green Chemistry Centre at the University of York has shown these skins are rich in a number of high value oils and minerals not currently being exploited as a resource that could be used in downstream added value markets.
Through this project Link2Energy Ltd will define and develop the key concepts and underpinning processes of a Marine Biorefinery to fractionally extract these valuable resources using principles of green chemistry in order to exploit commercial opportunities for turning this UK fish skin 'waste' into a feedstock for a tailored, food & pharma-grade extraction process.
The feasibilty TSB funding is key to unlocking the process advancements and development of IP for the marine bio-refinery concept that is directly relevant to the company's strategic direction.
This developed technology is then highly transferrable globally given that there are 1.5m tonnes of farmed salmon alone.
The UK Seafood processing industry produces a significant amount of waste, primarily in the form of offal, bones, heads and skins. The industry is already very mindful of resource efficiency, and some secondary grade materials are minced and used within a variety of products. However, there still exists approximately 250,000 tpa of material deemed unusable directly in the human food chain.
For some of these arisings, there are established markets, such as pet food or proteinaceous fishmeal. Fish waste is known to contain unexploited resources including fish protein hydrolysate, protein concentrate, enzymes, leather, fertilisers, collagen, gelatine, biofuels and pharmaceuticals which are all highly specialised with potential for producing valuable products. In addition previous work by The Green Chemistry Centre at the University of York has shown these skins are rich in a number of high value oils and minerals not currently being exploited as a resource that could be used in downstream added value markets.
Through this project Link2Energy Ltd will define and develop the key concepts and underpinning processes of a Marine Biorefinery to fractionally extract these valuable resources using principles of green chemistry in order to exploit commercial opportunities for turning this UK fish skin 'waste' into a feedstock for a tailored, food & pharma-grade extraction process.
The feasibilty TSB funding is key to unlocking the process advancements and development of IP for the marine bio-refinery concept that is directly relevant to the company's strategic direction.
This developed technology is then highly transferrable globally given that there are 1.5m tonnes of farmed salmon alone.
Lead Participant | Project Cost | Grant Offer |
|---|---|---|
| LINK2ENERGY LIMITED | £25,000 | £ 25,000 |
People |
ORCID iD |
| Janet Bailey (Project Manager) |