![[BioMatNet Database - Non-EC Activities]](../images/Other.gif) |
Organisation Description - UK
CIMNFC LINK - Competitive Industrial Materials from Non Food Crops |
Introduction
This programme was launched in 1996 as a
successor to the Programme Crops for Industrial Use, which had ended the
previous year. The new activity, which is now well under way has produced its
first Newsletter (Spring 1998), that provides more background information as
well as indicating a change in programme coordinator and secretariat (as
indicated below). The first year was spent working upon ideas so that the first
round of funding was not approved until the summer of last year, with five
projects approved to date. When complete, it is anticipated that the new
Programme will manage approximately 15 projects. The newsletter also describes
some of the projects underway as detailed below. The emphasis of the new
programme is on pre-competitive research which meets the needs of industry.
Funding of £4 million has been committed by the lead sponsors BBSRC
(Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council) and MAFF (Ministry of
Agriculture Fisheries and Food), who manage the programme together with
representatives of the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry), EPSRC
(Engineering and Physical Science Research Council) and SOAEFD (Scottish Office
Agriculture Environment and Fisheries Department). Activities are based on
collaboration between industrial groups and RTD suppliers, such that successful
applicants will need to have assembled a consortia with collaborators in the
supply chain with the capability to take technology from laboratory to market
application.
Programme Objective
The main objective is to overcome technical barriers to the wider use of renewable, crop-derived raw materials by industry, with an emphasis on crops of medium to high value which can be viable without subsidy. Products of interest are likely to be based on vegetable oils, starches, fibres, proteins and speciality chemicals (including pharmaceuticals). Research priority will be given to the development of technologies which:
It is suggested that to achieve significant improvement in these technologies will require a multidisciplinary approach linking plant biotechnology and biochemistry; biochemical and process engineering; chemistry; materials science and processing as well as impacts such as cycle analysis and process modelling.
Top of Page
New plant-derived plastics and resins
STARPLAST Novel Biocompostable Materials from Starch is a joint venture between the University of York, IRC Leeds and an industrial consortium with a technical programme that aimed to understand and quantitatively, the graft copolymerisation of cyclic esters with both granular and destructured starch, and the properties of the materials produced, including their biodegradability. The surface treatment of a high amylose starch in relation to the extent of grafting with cyclic esters and eta-caprolactone proved to be of particular significance. The nature of the organo-metal calalysts used was important but, perhaps of greater interest, was the fact that reactive grafting was possible without the use of a catalyst. A reactively extruded and partially grafted copolymer that required no plasticisation proved to be one of the more interesting products. Conventional processing methods were used to pelletise the thermoplastic material, to cast films and to vacuum form packaging containers such as a fruit trays that were submitted to standard industrial procedures for fruit packing and were tested through to the supermarket shelves. The materials not only survived the full-scale industrial trials but also post shelf trials e.g. allowing the fruit to rot in the trays. The trays were shown to be compostable. Investigations are under way to see how the products can be commercialised.
RESINS from Sustainable Sources for Composite Manufacture , aimed to replace petroleum-derived components of resins used for the manufacture of various composite materials with components derived from vegetable oils. Partners in the project are Keele University's School of Chemistry and Physics, Advance Enterprises (an SME developer of new resin technology based in Staffordshire), Cargill (one of the countrys largest processors of vegetable oils), Ceramic Prints (a manufacturer of ceramic tiles based in Yorkshire) and Boustead Consulting (experts in life cycle analysis).
Natural fibres for industrial use
TEX FLAX Short Fibre Flax for High-Value Textile Uses is a project investigating alternative methods of reliably producing good quality, short fibre flax with high value textile end uses in mind. Quality relates to the usefulness of the fibre for processing on cotton-spinning systems. Such qualities have high value and the economics of the supply chain are attractive at all stages of fibre production and processing. Fine flax and flax / blend yarns can be used in the high volume manufacture of expensive fabrics, currently dominated by 100% cotton and cotton/polyester blends.Methods developed within the project address flax growing, retting, fibre extraction and processing and there are strong indications that good quality flax can be grown profitably in the UK without farming subsidy. The consortium is representative of the complete supply chain and includes UK flax growers, a UK flax processing company and an Italian spinning company. Optimum flax varieties have been identified by workers at De Montfort University for the quality of fibre they produce, and these are being grown in small plot trials in areas of Leicestershire and Cornwall. Fibre extraction is achieved following desiccation and retting of the straw as a standing crop. Current decortication machinery available in the UK has been evaluated and optimised for the cleaning and separation of fibre of the desired quality Evaluation of the fibre, in terms of its suitability for use in yarn production on cotton spinning systems, is being carried out in Italy..
STRAWFRAC Sequential Extraction of Value-Added Products from Wheat Straw is a project that aims to produce cellulose and hemicellulose from wheat straw for the viscose and paint industries respectively. The processes are water-based with minimum solvent usage. A one-step pulping regime using acetic acid has been developed which gives high purity cellulose. The virtue of this method is that the pulping liquor is easily reclaimed, thus minimising waste. More recent work has focused on steam explosion. This non-chemical treatment is popular in Asia, particularly China, where it is used on rice straw. Initial trials, performed by Surface Specialties UCB and The BioComposites Centre, showed that the method gives good yields of cellulose and hemicellulose, The process has now been scaled up to provide material for both viscose film and paint production.
OPTIFIBRE - Optimised Non-Wood Pulp Production & Effluent Treatment set out to address problems relating to the over-pulping' of non-wood fibre and the disposal of effluent from the non-wood pulping process. In collaboration with six UK industrial partners and UMIST, the BioComposites Centre developed a rapid non-destructive method, based on Near Infra Red (NIH) spectroscopy to evaluate and quantify the variation n chemical composition of the raw flax and hemp fibres being commercially pulped. The second part of the work lead to the design of a process to deal specifically with the "black Liquor" pulping waste. This resulted in a two stage industrially applicable process involving tangential flow separation and nano-filtration techniques.
NOVCOMPS Novel Low Impact Polymer Matrix Composites addressed the fact that inadequate mechanical performance has to date limited the widespread use of polymer composites based on renewable resources to mainly non-structural applications. This project addressed some of the principal scientific and technological obstacles hindering the development of structural polymer composites based on renewable resources. The multi-disciplinary team of industrialists and academic researchers have early results that show that careful design of the fibre reinforcement architecture can dramatically improve the performance of such composite materials
BIOMAT Thermoplastic Composites for the Automotive Industry investigates the proposition that natural fibres offer many technical and environmental benefits when used to reinforce composites, such as high strength and stiffness qualities in low-density materials. QinetiQ, with its unique experience of the underlying chemistry used to bond fibres to resin, recognises that natural fibre products also offer considerable environniental advantages. These include the low energy requirements of plant fibres during manufacture and their relative ease of recycling. The motor industry aims to produce body components that will further improve vehicle safety while helping to reduce environmental impact over their entire life. Over the next four years. the BIOMAT team will evaluate various forms of flax, hemp and coppiced willow fibre. In the first phase of work, QinetiQ, The BioComposites Centre and AEI Compounds will conduct studies on material properties, processing characterisation and injection moulding in collaboration with Birkbys Plastics.Knowledge gained will then be used to design and manufacture an automotive demonstrator component in a production car supplied by Ford with support from technology solutions provider, Visteon. Engenuity and Premier Engineering Solutions will conduct design studies and stress analysis in collaboration with the other consortium partners.
High value products for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries
RAPFl - Rosemary Antioxidants for the Pharmaceutical and Food Industries is a project that aimed to demonstrate the feasibility of growing rosemary in the UK to provide antioxidants for the pharmaceutical and food industries. Research was undertaken by the National Herb Centre and the Universities of Reading and Coventry; in conjunction with industrial collaborators, J K King, Checkmate and Langford Electronics. Methods for selecting high antioxidant rosemary were developed, while results from accessions planted at three sites; in the autumn of 1999, indicated that rosemaiy crops grown in the UK were capable of producing significantly higher levels of carnosic acid than those grown in Spain and North Africa. Six varieties with the highest concentrations of carnosic acid were selected to go forward into field trials. For UK growers to obtain maximum benefit from the rosemary crop it will he important to add value by extracting the carnosic acid rather than purely providing raw material into a commodity market. Simple and economic extraction methods are required to do this. At Coventry University it was shown that conventional solvents were more efficient than either CO2 or other novel solvent systems, and that sonication and ethanol extraction was a more effective extraction technique than thermal methods, leading to development of a pilot scale extraction plant. A total audit trail for the production of antioxidants from rosemary was developed by Checkmate that also identified critical decision points during production and processing. Contracts have been placed to provide 35 tonnes of dried material.
SEEDEX Seed Extraction Using Compressed CO2 is a recently -completed project carried out by the Supercritical Fluid Technology Group at the Centre for Formulation Research at the University of Birmingham that developed a process for the supercritical extraction of seed oils of industrial interest from borage, echium and lunaria. Advantages of this extraction process over conventional methods include a higher quality extract, a cleaner and safer technology and a remarkable flexibility and versatility. The natural compounds being sought are very long chain unsaturated fatty acids, potentially valuable for use in skin care products and as anti-inflammatory agents, as sell as in other therapeutic applications. Extraction has been demonstrated at laboratory, pilot and commercial scale and a computer model successfully used to predict the performance of such processes on an industrial scale. The work was performed in collaboration with J. K. King (leading players in the supply chain management of plant derived raw materials such as high value phytochemicals), Botanix (specialists in hop and other natural products and contract processing) and Croda Chemicals (leading UK-based supplier of speciality chemicals to the personal care, healthcare and industrial market sectors).
PHYTOPLANT - Phytochemical Library from British Plants concerns activities of the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research (IGER) in completing the transfer of methods for the production of a natural products library to its main partner MolecularNature Limited (MNL). Conventional commercial methods of natural products analysis and isolation have concentrated on the simpler extraction of non-water soluble components. However, this library contains purified, novel, water-soluble compounds.The potential novelty of the low molecular weight, water-soluble components of British plants was known to IGER and MNL but the methods for their commercial production and screening needed improving. In screening natural products, the pharmaceuticals industry has switched the emphasis away from complex mixtures to pure compounds comparable with those held in synthetic libraries. The project developed a fast and cheap process to take plants rapidly to the final stages of HPLC purification using the technology developed by industrial collaborator, Dionex (UK), for carbohydrates. Purified compounds with potential applications in the areas of immunology, oncology and virology have already been identified.
ABIPO - Antioxidant-Based Industrial Products from Oats is investigating the potential performance, both scientific and commercial, of oat oil and the constituent oat antioxidants in personal care and health products. The work is broadly divided into three areas: growing oats; milling/fractionating oats and extracting antioxidants from oats. Each area has the potential to deliver protocols that will maximise the efficacy and therefore the commercial viability of the final extracts used in personal care preparations.
PHYTODERM - Production of Skin-Protecting Phytochemicals as a project was established to bring together players in all aspects of the production of new plant-derived ingredients for the cosmetics industry. Such products are in increasing demand as a result of consumer pressure, with few new materials coming forward and some existing products having unacceptable variability in quality and supply. The project aims to develop two plant species for extracts to be used as protectants against skin damage and for the amelioration of ageing. Novel production techniques are being developed by ADAS and Hydroponic Herbs to enhance the yield of the phytochemicals of interest and to improve the consistency of supply of quality raw materials all year round. The National Herb Centre has obtained genotypes from various sources that are being screened for high yielding lines that can be propagated vegetatively. Critical Processes and the University of Leeds are developing novel extraction techniques for phytochemicals of interest using superheated water, with resultant fractions being tested for efficacy and interest by The Boots Company in conjunction with the Cornwall Dermatology Research Project. The aim is commercial production of selected plant 'lines' as a reliable source of quality materials for new cosmetic products that could be on the market within 5 years.
LINK Meeting, Manchester September 2003
LINK SEMINAR - Natural Fibres - Industrial Materials for Non-Food use
Held at Manchester Materials Science Centre in September 2003 this meeting attracted a capacity audience of more than 80 people interested in hearing how the LINK Programme had performed in the area of natural fibres. The seminar had three aims:
It was pointed out that although the CIMNFC programme is now closed, proposals for further work in the non-foodcrops sector can now be submitted in response to calls under the STI Programme, a brief overview of which was presented at the end of the meeting. This was preceeded by a programme of talks and related discussion covering the following projects:
Discussions revealed the problem of taking the results further to result in commercial products in the market place, as well as the intrinsic value of such results that had been obtained with specific samples of various fibres, which showed great variability reflecting variety, growth conditions, initial procesisng (retting) and manufacturing methods. Top of Page
Some of the first projects to be approved are described below.
INDINK Plant-derived Indigo for Industrial Use. As the name suggests this project is looking at the production of indigo, which is derived from the biennial or perennial herb Isatis tinctoria or woad. This plant produces two substances in its leaves (indican and isatan B), which, when exposed to the air, form the blue compound, indigo. Although native to northern Europe, it has not been grown for this purpose since the 17th century. Hence, there has been no recent attempt to breed improved varieties. The revived interest in woad as a source of indigo for industry has led to a need for more systematic research on this crop. The aim is to develop varieties of Isatis that give improved yields of indigo, using a rapid programme of marker-assisted plant breeding from existing lines. In addition an experimental extraction process will be scaled-up to produce quantities of indigo for industrial purposes.
IONEX Plant fibres as ion-exchange media. In this project a pilot plant facility (funded through the UK FORESIGHT initiative) is being used to produce low cost ion exchange materials based on diverse lignocellulosic raw materials. The IONEX project, which is funded by MAFF and EPSPC, will run parallel to other and enable the potential of chemically modified agricultural materials such as flax and hemp to be investigated.
SEMIOCHEM Semiochemicals for Aphid Control. This project considers alternative methods of dealing with aphids, that are the most important group of agricultural and horticultural pests in the UK and most of Europe. They cause direct damage to many different varieties of crops as well as transmitting virus diseases. The recent identification of the attractant pheromones produced by sexual female aphids has opened up new possibilities for the development of novel pest management strategies. This would decrease the use of broad-spectrum pesticides. This project seeks to provide products for the control of pest aphid species in the field, using the chemicals which occur naturally in their environment and which act by non-toxic mechanisms. It also aims to improve the method of production so as to use clean technologies rather than chemical synthesis. Aphids are also attacked by a wide range of natural enemies including parasitoid wasps. To be effective early season synchrony of parasitoids and aphids must be achieved. Recent laboratory and field studies at Rothamsted and Imperial College, Silwood Park have shown that some parasitic wasps are strongly attracted to the pheromones produced by sexual female aphids to attract mates. This response is being used to develop a sustainable aphid control strategy, based on the use of synthetic aphid sex pheromones, to achieve early season synchrony between natural populations of parasitoids and aphid pests and to conserve and enhance field margin parasitoid populations in autumn.
The aphid sex pheromones possess a number of chiral centres, and are thus difficult synthetic targets. Two important aphid sex pheromone components are isomers of the monoterpenoids nepetalactone and nepetalactol. A synthetic route to one of the nepetalactones and the corresponding nepetalactol has been developed from commercially available starting materials, which must be of a high enantiomeric purity to yield materials which exhibit biological efficacy. However, the high cost of the starting materials, results in a product cost exceeding £1000/g of pheromone. This, combined with the toxic nature of some of the reagents used in synthesis, means that production of the pheromone from this route is not practical. However, possible intermediates are produced catmint (Nepeta cataria) and the related N. racemosa, from which high yields of these compounds, of the order of 1 g/ kg of fresh plant material, can be obtained by conventional steam distillation methods. A high extraction efficiency, combined with a yield potential of up to 10 tonne/ha of fresh plant material, demonstrates that the production of aphid sex pheromones from commercial production of Nepeta species is economically viable. The pheromone is most attractive when released into a crop area at physiological levels which involve very low concentrations. To achieve this, a formulation will be developed which impregnates the pheromones into a resin. The project, which is funded by MAFF, includes IACR-Rothamsted and three Industrial partners: English Hop Products Limited, which has expertise and facilities for the extraction and purification of essential oils, Richard Wood Partnerships, who will propagate and grow several Nepeta species cultivars to determine which give products with high enantiomeric purity and good overall yield, and AgriSense-BCS Limited, which has considerable experience with pheromone formulation and currently markets several pheromone-based products.
A number of projects funded under the previous Crops for Industrial Use programme were still running when this LINK programme started. . These include work on Very High Erucic Acid Rapeseed. Although other research groups have succeeded in expressing erucic acid on all three branches of the glycerol "backbone" of the triacylglyceride, the overall levels of erucic acid produced in the resultant transgenic oilseed rape plants have not been substantially increased. The team at the John Innes Centre have generated a high erucic rape from a variety of B. oleracea which produces seed oil with over 60% erucic acid in its seed oil, and B. rapa. Initial results are encouraging. They are also investigating the regulation of synthesis of very long chain fatty acids in rape. Another project (known as STARPAC) is developing technology for the converting starch into mouldable packaging materials to produce environmentally friendly materials made by clean, solvent-free processing routes, which could be recycled or disposed of by composting. This includes evaluation of the properties of materials produced from wheat starch compared with those of expanded polystyrene by the Centre for Biomimetics at Reading University. Another starch project (THERMOSTARCH) is using technologies developed for cellulosic materials for the solubilisation of polysaccharides enabling subsequent homogeneous derivatisation of the dissolved polymers. This should enable production of films of borderline solubility as well as the production of high DS thermoplastics for hot melt adhesives and thermosetting adhesivesSUMMARY
A new LINK programme on Competitive Industrial Materials from Non Food Crops has been launched. This will be for five years (1996-2001) with initial Government sponsorship of approximately £4 million being supplied by BBSRC and MAFF. Further sponsorship may be provided by other government bodies on a project by project basis. This Government investment must be matched by at least £4 million from industry, making a total programme of approximately £8 million.
IMPORTANCE OF NON-FOOD CROPS TO THE UK
The importance to the UK economy of developing crop-derived products as competitive renewable materials for industry is widely recognised by the UK Government, Technology Foresight and the European Union, as well as by numerous market surveys. Previous UK and EU initiatives in this area have dealt predominantly with the problem of finding large scale uses for existing crops. Thus, the emphasis has been on supply side push for alternative uses. However, a wide range of end user companies in diverse manufacturing sectors could benefit if the competitive advantage can be obtained by switching from traditional, petrochemical feedstocks to crop based ones.
NEED FOR THE NEW LINK PROGRAMME
The unique feature of this LINK programme, and one which sets it apart from past and current UK and EC initiatives, is that it aims to put research in place which will support a much wider range of industrial sectors than has hitherto been the case. Accordingly, the aim of the programme is to use research and technology, so far as is possible, to overcome the major barriers to the uptake of non food, crop derived feedstocks by end user companies, thereby allowing such companies to make rational decisions about using crop derived materials as the starting point of their processing operations.
SCOPE OF THE PROGRAMME
The major barriers to the use of crops as competitive sources of non food raw materials involve:
Accordingly, this programme is directed towards collaborative and multi disciplinary research aimed at overcoming the technical aspects of these barriers. Projects will concentrate on end user requirements for industry and energy and generally will involve crops which present medium to high value opportunities in the areas of oilseeds, fibres, carbohydrates and speciality chemicals, including those producing novel transgenic products such as petroselinic acid and polyhydroxybutyrate, and have a reasonable projected acreage. This should remove the need for a formal mid term review and its associated cost.
SPONSORS INTENTIONS
The programme will be jointly led by BBSRC and MAFF who aim to commit £2.5 million and £1.5 million respectively over the five years. Other departments have agreed to consider the support of projects which are relevant to their respective strategic goals.
RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER PROGRAMMES
The programme will have strong links with: the MAFF Alternative Crops Unit and relevant MAFF research and other government-supported activties, such as the relevant Research Councils. Further information regarding the submission of project proposals can be requested from the LINK office as detailed on the front of this item.
© Copyright 2006 Policy Statements
Updated
by CPL Press:
03/07/2007
- biomatnet@biomatnet.org
 |
 |
 |
News |
 |
Events |
|
|