At UC鈥檚 Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, Dr Alex Yip is leading research into food waste conversion.
An ingenious new solution being engineered at the 麻豆传媒团队 (UC) aims to turn food waste into valuable chemical components that could be used to make bioplastics.
At UC鈥檚 Department of Chemical and Process Engineering,听Dr Alex Yip听is leading research into food waste conversion. He is working collaboratively with Hong Kong Polytechnic University to design and develop a catalyst to achieve this.
鈥淭he ultimate objective is to produce a high-value product from food waste,鈥 Dr Yip says. 鈥淭o date, we have completed a proof-of-concept showing that it鈥檚 feasible.鈥
The project鈥檚 goal is to extract three key chemical components, including polylactic acid (PLA) and the organic compound 5-HMF, from the food-waste-stream. These could then be used as building blocks to make sustainable bioplastics with various properties to suit consumer needs.
If this innovative project is successful, food waste could have a new use as raw material for valuable bioplastics.
Bioplastics produced from food waste would be 100% recyclable or fully biodegradable. They could be used for products such as biodegradable bin-liners.
鈥淭his waste stream carries both opportunity and financial costs,鈥 Dr Yip says. 鈥淲hat we鈥檙e trying to do is add value to that waste by converting it into something useful while at the same time responding to another environmental problem in Aotearoa New Zealand, which is the plastic waste problem.鈥
Being able to convert food waste into bioplastics would deliver the dual benefit of lowering greenhouse gas emissions while reducing the amount of non-biodegradable plastics going into landfills.
The research would be a pioneering breakthrough for catalytic conversion of food waste for this purpose. Long term, the objective is to scale-up the process for commercial application.
鈥淲e鈥檙e convinced that our process with this specific catalyst is very promising,鈥 says Dr Yip.
Dr Yip was recently awarded the 2019 New Zealand-Chinese Youth Scientist Award by the New Zealand-Chinese Scientist Association. Dr Yip received the award for his significant contributions to zeolite catalysis science, and advancing research and commercialisation opportunities that benefit New 麻豆传媒团队and Chinese societies.
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