About the Project

Valorising Waste (vWa) From Sugar & Paper Industries via Innovations in Pretreatment, Bio-transformations and Intensification.

This 3-year research project kicked-off in October 2018, and is funded as part of the Newton Fund – UK-India Industrial Waste Challenge 2017. The consortium is comprised of two industrial partners and three universities from the UK, and three industrial partners and four research institutes from India.

The aim of this project is to develop an intensified and modular pre-treatment & biotransformation process to make transportation fuels and value-added products which will realise a step change in the state of the art. The focus will be on utilising the wastes generated from sugarcane and associated industries that produce nearly 100 million tons of solid and liquid waste. The huge quantities of waste pose a significant challenge as well as an opportunity.

The key challenges in valorisation of these wastes are development of a cost effective pre-treatment, transformation of sugars to high value chemicals and product separation. We will develop novel hybrid pre-treatment methods based on thermal process, hydrodynamic cavitation and anaerobic digestion along with optimal & intensified bio-transformations. The technologies, which will realise a step change in the state of the art, will be commercialised by leveraging consortium’s industry connect. The developed solutions will make tangible & significant beneficial impact on wellbeing of a large population in rural India.

The Role of the Partners