WASTE CREATING NEW CHEMICALS:A SUSTAINABLE US chemical company is using its game- changing metabolic engineering and microbiology technology to produce valuable chemicals from waste byproducts, such as fatty acids and crude glycerine.
Glycos Biotechnologies, based in Houston, Texas, made its breakthrough at a large plant that is able to produce up to 150,000 litres of chemicals.
Many companies use sugars as feedstock for their chemical processes (and the price of this is forecast to continue rising), while Glycos uses non-sugar- based waste that is taken from the chemical, biodiesel and ethanol industries.
It has tailored different microorganisms which, when applied at the right temperature, concentration and pH level, can convert feedstock valued at €100-€200 per tonne into chemicals or materials worth more than €1,000 a tonne.
These valuable outputs include the building blocks of bioplastics, surfactants or other speciality chemicals as well as lactic acid and advanced ethanol, the privately-owned company says.
The company’s operations have a much lower cost than similar processes in the petrochemical or pharmaceutical industries, require less heat and power and have a much smaller carbon footprint, Glycos Biotechnologies claims.
