Public Funding for Perlemax Limited

"There is increasing demand for nutrient rich foods, with more of the world adopting meat and grain rich diets, and the world population expected to grow 25% by 2050\. The ability of traditional agriculture to meet the growing demands for meat and grain is uncertain in a world expected to face significant climate change. Microbial food products have the potential to transform the global food industry, producing highly nutritious food in scalable fermentation processes. This project will seek to both improve the process efficiency and sustainability of microbial food production and expand the market opportunity by developing new product streams. The project brings together Calysta, producers of FeedKind single cell protein (SCP) animal feed, produced by fermentation of methane utilising bacteria, New Food Innovation, Perlemax, The Carbon Trust, Leeds University, and Pontus Research, who will collaborate to develop more sustainable processes, new products, and assess these as feed and food products The project will develop novel processes for the sustainable production of microbial biomass, including; microbubble technology for improved mass transfer; the use of novel microbial consortia and; the simultaneous fixing of emitted CO2 in a linked microbial process. The processes currently used for the production of the animal-feed approved FeedKind will be fully evaluated, producing a roadmap for the rapid development of high-quality food-grade processes for the production of nutrient rich foods. FeedKind microbial SCP is naturally high in protein and to increase its value as a food ingredient processes will be developed to generate a soluble protein isolate fraction for use as a food ingredient and the insoluble fraction for use as an animal feed ingredient. The soluble protein isolate fraction will be assessed for valuable properties such as gelling, foaming and binding, for replacement of animal-derived proteins in meat-free products. The insoluble fraction will be assessed as an animal feed ingredient for fish and piglets, where it will also be assessed for improvement of animal gut health. The outcomes of this project will be the development of new processes and technologies for the production of novel nutrient rich microbial food and animal feed products. The processes developed will be resource efficient, reducing CO2 emissions, with low water and land usage compared to traditional agriculture. The processes will be highly scalable and non-seasonal using technology that can be deployed anywhere."

CCm Technologies is an award-winning cleantech company, focused on resource optimisation and Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU). CCm's technology converts captured carbon dioxide and other waste streams (such as ammonia and phosphate) into stable value-added materials with multiple uses across global priority sectors of food/agriculture, advanced materials & energy storage. CCm Technologies will partner with Perlemax to combine technologies to produce a high-volume carbon capture technology, that utilises waste streams to produce a highly sustainable and high nutrient content, environmentally beneficial fertiliser. Perlemax technology includes ammonia recovery through micro bubbling and nutrient recovery through the use of algae bioreactors. The fertiliser will be sold commercially and has many benefits. Organic carbon stored within the fertiliser is sequestered into the soil, improving soil health. CCm's fertiliser reduces leaching and volatilisation, meaning more nutrients are available for uptake and with 20% less fertiliser applied, crop yields are still equivalent to normal application rates. Integration between CCm and Perlemax treats both solid and liquid fractions of anaerobic digestate, which has never been done before. This makes waste liquor easier to deal with, as the process would clean the liquor enough so it can be discharged into water systems, reducing environmental damage. The combined technologies enable CCm to utilize recovered resources from Perlemax's technology (ammonia, bicarbonate and algae-containing nutrients). This reduces virgin material usage in CCm's process, further advancing the circular economy of the industries involved with anaerobic digestion. The project facilitates a circular economy in the Food Supply Industry, reducing GHG emissions and enabling the UK to accelerate carbon net-zero plans. CCm and Perlemax will continue working together, improving the high-volume carbon capture technologies, optimising resource use and continuously improving on advancing the circular economy. This is to achieve carbon-net zero by 2050, following the 25-year Environment Plan to reduce global warming.

This project will investigate the application of microbubbles for the continuous removal of ethanol from cultures of a thermophilic bacterium which is known to grow well on lignocellulosic feedstocks (eg food processing wastes or treated municipal solid waste.) Perelemax Ltd have invented a novel method for the inexpensive generation of microbubbles, bubbles which are much smaller than those typically generated in a fermentation process. Their size means that for a fixed volume there is a much higher bubble surface area through which transfer of ethanol to the bubble occurs. Assuming the bacteria are able to withstand the effects of sparging with microbubbles we hope to demonstrate that this approach can improve the economics of ethanol production from lignocellulose, thus reducing the cost of sutainably produced biofuels.

This project seeks to address water quality issues in the waste water and aquaculture industry (i.e. fish and shell fish farming) by the application of a novel aeration technology originally developed for the hydrogen fuel cell industry. The technology consists of devices for the rapid generation, mixing and beak down of microbubbles in water. Specifically, the project will demonstrate the duel feasibility of oxygenation and ammonia removal from water by hot air stripping. Both these processes are much needed by the lucrative and rapidly expanding global aquaculture industry in order to improve process water quality and thus, the health, quality and value of contained fish and shell fish stocks.

As a society, we are wasting a lot of food with global food wastage estimated at 2 billion tonnes p.a. Growing population and the growth of the middle class is only going to increase this problem. That which cannot be repurposed as animal feed is mitigated using appropriate waste treatment facilities. One of these strategies is to use an airtight container to let microbes degrade this waste into biogas(predominantly a mixture of methane(CH4)+CarbonDioxide(CO2) and other gases in minor amounts) and manure in an oxygen free environment in a process known as anaerobic digestion(AD). This process is relatively clean, generates biogas which can be used for energy generation and reduces the greenhouse gas emissions due to uncontrolled release of methane in the landfill.Our proposed solution enhances this process by periodic sparging of CO2 microbubbles in order to increase the CH4 yield by 110%. It is also planned to sweeten (separate CO2) the biogas released by mineral carbonation mediated by microbubbles. Increase of process efficiencies via total process integration at site is another objective making this project an inherently sustainable energy solution.

Plasma processing is widespread for high performance materials, but has increasing applications for chemical products and intermediates. For the most common type of plasma reactor -- the dielectric barrier discharge -- to be durable for the continuous production of chemicals over a long lifetime, the dielectric coating must be robust in material selection, but also is subject to tight tolerance restrictions on the uniformity and thickness of the coating, particularly for multiplexed microreactors. Very few of an array of such microreactors will "fire" unless these tolerances are met. This proposal is to explore the application of a novel coating with appropriate materials to achieve the necessary level of tolerance and durability, and will test the plasma microreactor fidelity and performance on an exemplar application to produce ozone-rich microbubbles for cleaning, sterilisation, and gas transfer purposes, in the first instance, related to "green" laundry machines.

Design and construct ion of a bacterial process with an integrated Microbubble distillation system to convert complex sugary feedstocks and crude glycerol to acetaldehyde (AcAld). AcAld is a desirable product because it can be used as the entry point for the synthesis of acetic acid, acetic anhydride, butanol, butyraldehyde, crotonaldehyde, ethyl acetate, and other high value chemicals. It is the synthesis of butanol that is of particular interest to the biofuel market due to its more desirable characteristics over ethanol.

Design and construct ion of a bacterial process with an integrated Microbubble distillation system to convert complex sugary feedstocks and crude glycerol to acetaldehyde (AcAld). AcAld is a desirable product because it can be used as the entry point for the synthesis of acetic acid, acetic anhydride, butanol, butyraldehyde, crotonaldehyde, ethyl acetate, and other high value chemicals. It is the synthesis of butanol that is of particular interest to the biofuel market due to its more desirable characteristics over ethanol.

Design and construct ion of a bacterial process with an integrated Microbubble distillation system to convert complex sugary feedstocks and crude glycerol to acetaldehyde (AcAld). AcAld is a desirable product because it can be used as the entry point for the synthesis of acetic acid, acetic anhydride, butanol, butyraldehyde, crotonaldehyde, ethyl acetate, and other high value chemicals. It is the synthesis of butanol that is of particular interest to the biofuel market due to its more desirable characteristics over ethanol.

Design and construct ion of a bacterial process with an integrated Microbubble distillation system to convert complex sugary feedstocks and crude glycerol to acetaldehyde (AcAld). AcAld is a desirable product because it can be used as the entry point for the synthesis of acetic acid, acetic anhydride, butanol, butyraldehyde, crotonaldehyde, ethyl acetate, and other high value chemicals. It is the synthesis of butanol that is of particular interest to the biofuel market due to its more desirable characteristics over ethanol.

Design and construct ion of a bacterial process with an integrated Microbubble distillation system to convert complex sugary feedstocks and crude glycerol to acetaldehyde (AcAld). AcAld is a desirable product because it can be used as the entry point for the synthesis of acetic acid, acetic anhydride, butanol, butyraldehyde, crotonaldehyde, ethyl acetate, and other high value chemicals. It is the synthesis of butanol that is of particular interest to the biofuel market due to its more desirable characteristics over ethanol.

Design and construct ion of a bacterial process with an integrated Microbubble distillation system to convert complex sugary feedstocks and crude glycerol to acetaldehyde (AcAld). AcAld is a desirable product because it can be used as the entry point for the synthesis of acetic acid, acetic anhydride, butanol, butyraldehyde, crotonaldehyde, ethyl acetate, and other high value chemicals. It is the synthesis of butanol that is of particular interest to the biofuel market due to its more desirable characteristics over ethanol.

Design and construct ion of a bacterial process with an integrated Microbubble distillation system to convert complex sugary feedstocks and crude glycerol to acetaldehyde (AcAld). AcAld is a desirable product because it can be used as the entry point for the synthesis of acetic acid, acetic anhydride, butanol, butyraldehyde, crotonaldehyde, ethyl acetate, and other high value chemicals. It is the synthesis of butanol that is of particular interest to the biofuel market due to its more desirable characteristics over ethanol.

Design and construct ion of a bacterial process with an integrated Microbubble distillation system to convert complex sugary feedstocks and crude glycerol to acetaldehyde (AcAld). AcAld is a desirable product because it can be used as the entry point for the synthesis of acetic acid, acetic anhydride, butanol, butyraldehyde, crotonaldehyde, ethyl acetate, and other high value chemicals. It is the synthesis of butanol that is of particular interest to the biofuel market due to its more desirable characteristics over ethanol.

Design and construct ion of a bacterial process with an integrated Microbubble distillation system to convert complex sugary feedstocks and crude glycerol to acetaldehyde (AcAld). AcAld is a desirable product because it can be used as the entry point for the synthesis of acetic acid, acetic anhydride, butanol, butyraldehyde, crotonaldehyde, ethyl acetate, and other high value chemicals. It is the synthesis of butanol that is of particular interest to the biofuel market due to its more desirable characteristics over ethanol.

Design and construct ion of a bacterial process with an integrated Microbubble distillation system to convert complex sugary feedstocks and crude glycerol to acetaldehyde (AcAld). AcAld is a desirable product because it can be used as the entry point for the synthesis of acetic acid, acetic anhydride, butanol, butyraldehyde, crotonaldehyde, ethyl acetate, and other high value chemicals. It is the synthesis of butanol that is of particular interest to the biofuel market due to its more desirable characteristics over ethanol.

Design and construct ion of a bacterial process with an integrated Microbubble distillation system to convert complex sugary feedstocks and crude glycerol to acetaldehyde (AcAld). AcAld is a desirable product because it can be used as the entry point for the synthesis of acetic acid, acetic anhydride, butanol, butyraldehyde, crotonaldehyde, ethyl acetate, and other high value chemicals. It is the synthesis of butanol that is of particular interest to the biofuel market due to its more desirable characteristics over ethanol.

Design and construct ion of a bacterial process with an integrated Microbubble distillation system to convert complex sugary feedstocks and crude glycerol to acetaldehyde (AcAld). AcAld is a desirable product because it can be used as the entry point for the synthesis of acetic acid, acetic anhydride, butanol, butyraldehyde, crotonaldehyde, ethyl acetate, and other high value chemicals. It is the synthesis of butanol that is of particular interest to the biofuel market due to its more desirable characteristics over ethanol.

Design and construct ion of a bacterial process with an integrated Microbubble distillation system to convert complex sugary feedstocks and crude glycerol to acetaldehyde (AcAld). AcAld is a desirable product because it can be used as the entry point for the synthesis of acetic acid, acetic anhydride, butanol, butyraldehyde, crotonaldehyde, ethyl acetate, and other high value chemicals. It is the synthesis of butanol that is of particular interest to the biofuel market due to its more desirable characteristics over ethanol.

Design and construct ion of a bacterial process with an integrated Microbubble distillation system to convert complex sugary feedstocks and crude glycerol to acetaldehyde (AcAld). AcAld is a desirable product because it can be used as the entry point for the synthesis of acetic acid, acetic anhydride, butanol, butyraldehyde, crotonaldehyde, ethyl acetate, and other high value chemicals. It is the synthesis of butanol that is of particular interest to the biofuel market due to its more desirable characteristics over ethanol.

Design and construct ion of a bacterial process with an integrated Microbubble distillation system to convert complex sugary feedstocks and crude glycerol to acetaldehyde (AcAld). AcAld is a desirable product because it can be used as the entry point for the synthesis of acetic acid, acetic anhydride, butanol, butyraldehyde, crotonaldehyde, ethyl acetate, and other high value chemicals. It is the synthesis of butanol that is of particular interest to the biofuel market due to its more desirable characteristics over ethanol.

Design and construct ion of a bacterial process with an integrated Microbubble distillation system to convert complex sugary feedstocks and crude glycerol to acetaldehyde (AcAld). AcAld is a desirable product because it can be used as the entry point for the synthesis of acetic acid, acetic anhydride, butanol, butyraldehyde, crotonaldehyde, ethyl acetate, and other high value chemicals. It is the synthesis of butanol that is of particular interest to the biofuel market due to its more desirable characteristics over ethanol.

Design and construct ion of a bacterial process with an integrated Microbubble distillation system to convert complex sugary feedstocks and crude glycerol to acetaldehyde (AcAld). AcAld is a desirable product because it can be used as the entry point for the synthesis of acetic acid, acetic anhydride, butanol, butyraldehyde, crotonaldehyde, ethyl acetate, and other high value chemicals. It is the synthesis of butanol that is of particular interest to the biofuel market due to its more desirable characteristics over ethanol.

Energy efficient microbubbles generated by fluidic oscillation are a recent advance in bio/chemical processing, with applications to lab and industrial scale bioreactors. Because the microbubbles are generated cheaply and controllably, they have been shown at the lab scale to lead to substantially lower costs / higher productivity for transfer processes in bioreactors. In this programme, microbubbles will be developed for selected microbial processes. The commercial exemplars are three major aspects of bioethanol production -- yeast propagation (aerobic), fermentation (anerobic), & distillation operations, with the promise of a paradigm shift in energy efficiency and productivity. In addition, studies at the lab & pilot scale will form the basis for design and operation guidelines, engaging the whole supply chain to plan incorporation in industrial plant to estimate CAPEX, OPEX, and benefits for economic assessment. The new paradigm should be equally applicable to other bioliquid/biochemical processing from biomass.

Perlemax is a spin-out from the University of Sheffield. Perlemax's technology was born out of the world renowned work on fluid dynamics. This Proof of Market study seeks to address the commercial viability for pyrolysis oil (a biomass by-product) as a low-cost readily available biofuel. Its potential impacts are enormous, delivering upon waste minimisation, fossil fuel replacement and CO2 abatement to name but a few. However current technology does not allow for its effective generation due to the need to greatly reduce its water content in order to enhance its thermal properties. Project applicant, Perlemax Ltd's patented micro bubble technology appears to facilitate water removal without inducing re-polymerisation which would enable cost-effective low-energy pyrolysis oil upgrading. This technology is also applicable to wider sectors, of which an assessment of the fruit juice and desalination markets will form part of this study. Market assessments will be performed using both internal resource and the specialist services of NS Consulting. The resulting report will cover current technologies and the scope for improvements, plus an explanation of the current markets, how it is likely to develop and grow and where the applications are likely to arise. Initial discussions with key industry players will also be integral to this project and the success of future development and exploitation. New IP relating to the upgrading/dewatering of pyrolysis oil, fruit juice and desalination markets will be a further output of this 4-month study. Support of the Technology Strategy Board would enable this project to be undertaken in a thorough, qualified and timely manner and enable Perlemax Ltd and the UK to take a leading role in this growing global market.