From the foreign media, genecis, A student start-up company founded by engineers and graduates of Toronto scarborough, is turning restaurant food waste into biodegradable plastic (PHA), which can be used in the manufacture of toys, flexible packaging, 3D printed wire and medical applications. lunayu, founder and CEO of genecis, Said: ' every year the World's food waste is worth more than $1 trillion, and what we can do is turn that waste into something of higher value.
' After completing her undergraduate and Master's degree at utsc, she met several talented engineers at the start-up, turning food waste from restaurants into biogas and learning about the microbiology of converting discarded foods into other materials.
Shortly afterwards, she worked with environmental science experts at thehub, a business incubator in tscarborough, to identify other products that could be made from food Waste.
' Before we studied different types of bio-rubber and biological chemicals, we felt that PHA had the greatest market potential. PHA or Poly-hydroxy-alkyl ester is a high-quality biodegradable polymer produced by bacteria, and has many advantages over other forms of bio-plastics. They can be thermoplastic, which means it can easily be molded and reshaped into different products.
moreover, Unlike many other forms of bioplastics, it does not disrupt the recycling process. ' Many people throw bioplastics into recycling bins instead of compost, but if it's not thermoplastic, it can't be reshaped, ' Yu Said. ' This will destroy the physical properties of new recycled Products-they will eventually collapse.
' But if PHA accidentally enters the recycling bin, PHA will not cause this Problem. PHA is degraded within a year in the terrestrial environment and less than 10 in the marine Environment.
At the same time, synthetic plastics may take up to hundreds of years to degrade in similar environments. Genecis uses three steps to produce its PHA. first, they use a mixture of anaerobic (oxygen-free) bacteria to break down food waste into volatile fatty acids, similar to how food breaks down in the Stomach. next, The fatty acid is added to the aerobic (and oxygen) bacteria in the mixed culture, the bacterium is specifically selected to produce PHA in its cells.
finally, They use the extraction process to break cells, collect and purify Plastics.
From food waste to purified plastics, the process takes less than seven days, and the equivalent process of biogas production averages 21 days. Genecis currently has two locations. Their main labs are located in Tofbanting and bestbuilding, and they work with Pilot-scale bioreactors, another in the Uoftscarborough Environmental Science and Chemistry building, which is responsible for research and Development.
The company will open its demonstration plant later next year and will convert 3 tonnes of organic waste to PHA every WEEK.
A small bioreactor in the Genecis laboratory in Uoftscarborough to help optimize its production process. ' We are fine-tuned to find the best conditions for operating bacterial cultures, ' said Genecis's biotech director, Uoftscarborough's postdoctoral vanisankar. ' This includes a combination of temperature, ph and food volume that will bring us the best yield.
' In less than two years of operation, Genecis won more than 330, $000 in bonuses from the start-up Competition. Genecis is using bonuses to build prototypes of automated machines that can collect and process organic materials on Site. Yu finished saying that a machine can offset 243 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.
' Standard passenger cars release 4.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, which means that a restaurant can offset the emissions of 51.7 cars using just one of our machines, ' he added.
At the same time, Genecis cultured and isolated hundreds of species of bacteria that do not currently exist in the Database.
' Soon we will be able to synthesize specialty chemicals and other materials from organic waste, all of which are cheaper than traditional methods of production using synthetic biology, ' she said. Yu said that these specialty chemicals can be used in a variety of products, including cosmetics and health care Industry. ' It was a very exciting time for Us.
' Genecis to turn food waste into biodegradable plastic.