With the petrochemical industry and speciality chemical companies like Lubrizol committing to meet net-zero targets, new processes and products are needed to replace critical chemicals in the Global economy. Biotechnology is seen as a burgeoning solutions to this and is a pillar of the UK BEIS strategy with the aim of growing the UK bio-economy £220Bil currently to £440Bil by 2030\.

This project aims to deliver on these goals by developing a novel bio-synthetic process, OlaTek, utilizing fish waste as a feedstock to produce olefins, an industrially significant group of chemicals, used across the industry in the production of lubricants, surfactants, greases and oils. The OlaTek process will utilise the over 200,000 tonnes of fish waste produced annually in the UK and 62million Globally, proposing a sustainable solution to the pressing issue of fish waste.

By combining state-of-art molecular biology from University of Edinburgh with innovative process engineering from Impact Solutions, a complete process will be developed that treats fish waste to extract valuable chemicals which will then be bio-catalytically converted into olefins.

The proposed process will produce a high demand bio-derived olefin stream, offering a competitive advantage through improved environmental credentials. Furthermore, in collaboration with Lubrizol as an end-user, we will ensure our product meets the end-market specifications and provide a clear route to market strategy.