Food supply chain waste 'offers new source' for chemicals and materials

Scientists at the University of York are leading a major new EU-backed network that is exploring ways of using waste as an alternative carbon source, employing green and sustainable chemical technologies.
York’s Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence, which launched the Biowaste Industrial Symbiosis Network at a Technology Fair in California, has won a European Co-operation in Science and Technology (COST) grant to run the network.
The network which is being coordinated by PhD student Lucie Pfaltzgraff, involves engineers, chemists, biotechnologists and food technologists from academia and industry working on novel strategies to use food waste to provide new, sustainable, functional feedstocks. It aims to develop the valorisation of food supply chain waste as an alternative carbon source for bio-chemicals, bio-materials and bio-fuels by forging links between technology hubs across the world, overcoming technological barriers and reaching beyond first generation organic waste reuse and recycling such as composting and anaerobic digestion. It also seeks to bridge gaps between academic disciplines as well as between academia and industry (News Item The University of York, 20 July 2012).