Biocatalytic valorisation of flower waste: Towards sustainable feedstock for the chemical industry
Project Summary
Flower waste is a carbon neutral and a low-lignin feedstock, rich in compounds such as monoterpenoids and flavonoids. The esters of these compounds are widely used in the fragrance and food industries and there is an increasing demand for natural and chemical-free production routes. Both flowers are an abundant source of terpenes and flavonoids, which are functional ingredients in cosmetic and food products. However, they must be converted into their ester form to improve solubility in polar and non-polar media required for product formulation.
The aim of this project is to produce and scale up terpene esters from seasonal flower waste like roses, daffodils and tulips using amano lipases as catalyst. The 10-week project aligns with an ongoing project in my research group in collaboration with Bridge Farm group (largest producers of ornamental flowers in the UK) and Unilever. The project timeline is as follows:
Weeks 1 to 3 will involve bench scale studies to produce terpene esters from three different flower extracts using an optimised protocol developed in the research group. The samples will be analysed using a GC-MS to determine the ester product yield for each if the flower extract. Reaction kinetics will be used to determine the reaction rate and the selectivity of the enzyme towards individual terpene alcohols.
Weeks 4 to 9 will involve reaction scale-up in a novel Scalable Agitated Baffled Reactor (SABRe). The SABRe has shown to improve mixing and hence improve mass transfer especially for heterogeneous catalytic reactions. The scale-up of terpene esters will be studied using lipase immobilised on woollen cloth support developed in our research group. A design of experiment approach will be used to optimise the reactor based on parameters such as rotation speed, flow rate, catalyst and substrate concentration. Reaction kinetics will be used to determine the reaction rate and productivity.
Week 10 will involve report writing to summarise the methodology, results and discussion from the experimental work. This will contribute towards a journal article and the student will be part of the author list.
Training: The candidate will work at the interface of industry and academia during this project. They will have opportunities to present their results to industry collaborators and group meeting atleast once during the 10-week project period. They will also have an opportunity to visit the flower farms to collect flower waste during the project. They will be supported by a PhD student in the group and will be trained on lab skills and modelling on MATLAB and SPSS for reaction kinetics.