Projects

Our research in Biorefinery Engineering and Bioprocessing focusses on bioprocess technologies and biorefinery integration, and more specifically on the themes shown below.

Research themes

Arabinoxylans

A new class of food ingredients and non-food products

Fermentation

A key bioprocessing technology

Industrial ecology

Encompassing integration issues at the wider scale

Cereals

An important raw material for food and non-food processes

The figure below illustrates an integrated biorefinery using processing innovations (in yellow) to improve the nutritional value of DDGS, the animal feed co-product of bioethanol production.

The figure illustrates integration (dotted lines) with conventional bioethanol production to produce a novel food ingredient, arabinoxylan (AX), the removal of which improves the remaining DDGS for animal feed by reducing its fibre content (a synergistic, win-win result).

Meanwhile, fractionation, extrusion, enzyme treatment and fermentation are specific innovations with potential to further enhance the nutritional potential of the DDGS.

figure illustrates integration (dotted lines) with conventional bioethanol production to produce a novel food ingredient, arabinoxylan (AX)