Biomanufacturing chemicals using maritime waste feedstocks
Sustainable Extricko, a pioneering company focused on revolutionizing recycling in technical textiles and composites. They've developed a breakthrough process called Extricko, which enables the full reuse of previously non-recyclable materials, aiding industries in reducing their environmental impact and achieving zero waste.
Founded by brothers Dr. Joe Penhaul-Smith, a scientist with expertise in biotechnology and green chemistry, and Sam Penhaul, an experienced sailor, Sustainable Extricko combines scientific innovation with practical maritime experience. Their mission is to make technical textiles and composites, such as sails and ropes, fully recyclable, addressing the significant environmental challenges posed by these materials.
The Extricko process utilizes advanced green chemistry and biotechnologies to break down technical textiles and composites into high-quality, reusable fibers and monomers. This closed-loop system prevents waste from ending up in landfills and offers a sustainable solution for composites heavy industries like maritime, wind energy, automotive, additive manufacturing, and sports.
Vanillin is a valuable ($15 per kg) flavour and pharmaceutical compound, which can be extracted from vanilla beans; however, the overwhelming majority (20,000 tonne pa, 90% of global demand) is synthesised from finite petrochemical feedstocks. This chemical synthesis is associated with high greenhouse gas emissions, producing 4.25 tonnes CO2-equivalent produced per kg vanillin. Sustainable methods for vanillin production which do not rely on petrochemical feedstocks are therefore a research priority. Bio-based methods are particularly promising owing to mild processing conditions and opportunity to valorise waste feedstocks to support the circular economy. Previous work by Dr Sadler at the University of Edinburgh has demonstrated bio-based synthesis of vanillin from post-consumer plastic waste and in collaboration with Sustainable Extricko, from end-of-life sails. To fully realise the full potential of this technology, it is necessary to optimise and scale-up this bio-process to integrate into a more sustainable, bio-based chemicals industry.
End-of-life (EoL) sails are a 2000 tonne per year feedstock, with approximately 33 tonnes of sails reaching EoL annually in Scotland. This project aims to source and integrate these sails into a scalable vanillin production bioprocess which would directly boost the Scottish circular bioeconomy. To achieve this, the project team are working with Fairlie Quay marina, “Scotland’s Premier marina” and centre for maritime innovation, as well as the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC) and B&M Longworth, the original inventors of DeeCom “pressolysis” technologies. These technologies have been modified by Sustainable Extricko to successfully recycle 99.9% of sails currently on the market. If all these sails could be recycled into vanillin, this could produce up to 20 tonnes of vanillin ($300,000, 10% of global demand).
This project also aims to demonstrate use of EoL boat hulls and other composites as another feedstock for the bio-manufacturing of vanillin. There are already 2.5 million boats extant globally, with 1-3% of these reaching EoL each year with landfill being the only possible solution. Landfill of these hulls is extremely expensive (£15/kg of boat), with average costs running to £20,000 per boat. EoL composites are a source of glass microfibres and heavy metal leaching, which have serious impacts upon the local environment. Development of scalable solutions for EOL boat hulls is therefore vital for environmental safeguarding, while simultaneously supporting the Scottish circular economy. It is also anticipated that this technology could be readily adapted to other composite waste streams such as wind turbine blades and EoL aircraft parts.
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