A systems approach to synergistic utilisation of secondary organic streams

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Title
A systems approach to synergistic utilisation of secondary organic streams

CoPED ID
c148dc6e-f037-4f25-aa07-4010757cfca2

Status
Closed

Funders

Value
£833,334

Start Date
Jan. 1, 2018

End Date
Dec. 31, 2021

Description

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Food and plastic wastes from industries and wastewater from food and pharmaceutical manufacturing plants contain significant amount of valuable resources. In the UK, a total of 10 million tonnes of food waste is generated (household: 71%; manufacturing: 17%; hospitality and food service: 9%; retail and wholesale: 3%), with a value of over £17 billion/year, involving 33 TWh of final energy demand and 20 million tonnes CO2 equivalent of greenhouse gas emissions. These wastes together with the embedded resources are currently under-utilised and are mostly sent to landfill. This can pose serious environmental hazards and pollution, affecting human health and ecosystems. If these wastes and resources can be recovered into useful products such as chemicals, fuels and energy, this would meet the soaring industrial and consumers' demand in the future. The current technologies and practices in the UK in treating, managing and disposing these organic wastes are not able to cope with the increase in waste generation due to rapid urbanisation. Conventional industrial practices take the resources from finite resources such as fossil fuels, turn them into products that we use for transport fuels, electricity, commodity chemicals, plastic bags, and dispose all the residues to landfill after processing. If these residues can be reused in the same manufacturing plant or sent it to another nearby processing plant, the imbalance in supply and demand of resources in the industry can easily be resolved. A holistic thinking of the needs and constraints in the urban area, industrial systems, waste management systems and ecosystems are crucial in addressing the complex problem effectively. Therefore, the objective of the proposed research is to explore the interaction between urban, ecological and industrial supply and demand, and make use of the relationship to enhance the reuse and recycling of resources. This also calls for technological advancement in industrial and waste management systems to transform wastes into value-added products. This research will look into multiple product generation and using a combination of technologies to achieve higher performances and reduce the unfavourable features as in the existing technologies, with the consideration of the sustainability impacts on economy, environment and society. The approach will streamline the transition from fossil to bio-based economy and transformation of industrial strategies in the UK towards sustainable production and consumption patterns.

Kok Siew Ng PI_PER
Kok Siew Ng FELLOW_PER

Subjects by relevance
  1. Wastes
  2. Waste management
  3. Industry
  4. Emissions
  5. Industrial waste
  6. Environmental effects
  7. Recycling
  8. Production
  9. Food industry
  10. Sustainable development
  11. Decrease (active)
  12. Plastic industry
  13. Waste treatment
  14. Household waste

Extracted key phrases
  1. Waste management system
  2. Food waste
  3. Organic waste
  4. Industrial system
  5. System approach
  6. Plastic waste
  7. Waste generation
  8. Secondary organic stream
  9. Pharmaceutical manufacturing plant
  10. Food service
  11. Valuable resource
  12. Conventional industrial practice
  13. Finite resource
  14. Industrial supply
  15. Synergistic utilisation

Related Pages

UKRI project entry

UK Project Locations