The global water and wastewater treatment chemicals market, valued at $35.4 billion in 2023, is projected to reach $61 billion by 2032\. Water and wastewater treatment is crucial for drinking water, healthcare, and heavy industries. To treat water and wastewater, toxic chemicals remove suspended solids through flocculation, where particles aggregate into larger clusters for easy removal. However, current flocculants produce harmful neurotoxins and carcinogens, posing environmental risks that contribute significantly to sludge volume, which requires more processing and energy. High-quality, environmentally friendly flocculants could solve this challenge but are not available on a commercial scale. Competitors like SNF and BASF offer synthetic flocculants that lack sustainability, while others like Primex and Tidal Vision have limited market reach or cannot serve the drinking water and municipal wastewater sector. CuanTec aims to commercialise a novel, sustainable, non-toxic chitosan-based flocculant, to solve the industrial challenge. The 1kg-scale TRL4 prototype has the potential for use as a drinking water clarification agent but requires chemical validation at labscale and via in-field testing, to derisk 100kg/batch scale manufacture. This innovation supports a circular economy by producing usable sludge as fertilizer, meeting the biomanufacturing scope of this competition.

The '_Pulpex UK BioScience Initiative_' will help Pulpex Ltd fully achieve its medium-term ambition by replacing its existing petrochemical-based barrier coatings with truly sustainable coatings as barriers to water and foods. The barrier coatings are applied on the interior of the Pulpex sustainable bottle. Sustainable materials are the future of food packaging; consumers, general public and corporates are demanding this product now. Pulpex has already demonstrated the manufacture of a paper bottle that will enable brands to switch from glass or plastic to a sustainable alternative that is readily recycled. Pulpex has developed an advanced manufacturing process that converts cellulose fibre into a bottle that can be easily recycled through the existing and well-established paper collection schemes that are available throughout the UK. Pulpex are partnering with two UK bio-manufacturing firms. CuanTec is a world leading firm based in the European Centre for Marine Biotechnology in Oban who produce chitosan from waste material from shellfish using a proprietary fermentation process. CelluComp is an established company based in Fife with deep expertise in the extraction of micro-fibrillated cellulose (MFC) from waste root vegetables using bioprocessing techniques. These are world-class companies based here the UK and seeking expanding markets for their products. This ambitious collaborative project draws on scientific expertise from across the UK to accelerate the adoption of bioprocessing-derived barrier coatings for Pulpex's breakthrough fibre bottles and other high barrier packaging applications. The incredible calibre of our partners is testament to the high standards we aspire to. The project offers deep industry and academic collaboration across the entire supply chain -- converting non-food waste (e.g. shells from crustaceans and discards from root vegetables) into high value high barrier packaging that is market ready and validated. We see properly bioprocessing as essential to the development of the next generation of sustainable products. The project aim is to deliver and accelerate commercial high barrier products -- derived from the bioprocessing / fermentation of chitosan and MFC from vegetal waste streams -- that can be effectively applied to Pulpex fibre bottles at scale and certified as suitable for liquid food use.