This joint event organised by both the Biochemical Engineering Special Interest Group (BESIG) within the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) and the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre’s (IBioIC) Scottish Fermentation network (SFN), is being hosted at The University of Strathclyde’s Technology Innovation Centre (TIC) in Glasgow.

The majority of organic chemicals, nutraceuticals, fuels and polymers are still derived from fossil-based feedstocks, predominantly oil and gas. Advances in molecular biology techniques and an increased awareness and understanding of many emerging microorganisms, engineering biology methods and bio-based feedstocks, are now allowing scientists and engineers to rethink how the chemicals of the future are produced.

This one-day conference will look to bring together those with an interest in chemistry, biology, engineering and entrepreneurship, which are all the skills that will be needed to transition chemical production to bio-based methods using bio-based feedstocks. Talks will feature a range of speakers from universities and industry, covering a range of sectors looking to address this conversion. Featuring not just how they are addressing technical challenges, but also how to scale these to production, supported by several organisations that can help support with their services from cell identification to engineering and de-risking scale-up.

The SCOUT Project, in partnership with PwC UK LLP, is running an innovation clinic for SME leaders and line managers to gain insights from industry experts on what lies ahead for the sector and how SMEs can best take advantage of upcoming future opportunities. Topics up for discussion will include; Designing your operating model; R&D Tax Credits and incentives; Moving into manufacturing and Getting support.

In addition, attendees will also be granted a guided tour of the new, state-of-the-art Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre, hearing first-hand about the exciting work already underway within this world leading, carbon neutral facility – including how cutting edge technologies are delivering; a reduction of API, solvent and energy usage in manufacturing; leveraging digital twins to maximise operational efficiency; and reducing <50% wastage in automated clinical trial manufacture.

Spaces are limited, and demand is expected to be high, so book your place today by emailing ERDF.SCOUT@uk-cpi.com.

The SCOUT Project is a fully funded service which aims to accelerate and de-risk the growth of Scottish SMEs in chemical, biochemical and life science sectors, who are seeking or developing disruptive technologies and is jointly funded by the European Regional Development Fund (managed by Scottish Enterprise) CPI, CMAC Future Manufacturing Research Hub (CMAC) and the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC).

About Opportunity

The state of the art anode material used in Solid Oxide Fuel Cells is the Ni/YSZ ceramic-metal (cermet) composite (where YSZ = Y2O3/ZrO2) which has several difficulties in use. The anode is prepared as NiO/YSZ, and must be reduced to Ni/YSZ to work: this entails a large volumetric shrinkage, which can cause the cells to crack. Ni is a good catalyst for cracking hydrocarbon fuels, but tends to produce solid carbon, which then blocks the electrode, lowering performance and effective working life. The metallic Ni phase is also mobile and tends to sinter over time, again lowering performance.

Our technology overcomes these problems while achieving a comparable electrochemical performance, electrical and catalytic properties (significantly better when used with methane fuel). The new perovskite anode shows better tolerance to hydrocarbon fuels, without depositing carbon on the electrode. The perovskite anode can withstand more repeated cycling than a Ni/YSZ anode.

Key Benefits

• As effective as existing materials but without the problems such as cell cracking and reduced effective working life.
• Redox stable – no cracking on cycling.Highly tolerant of hydrocarbon fuels.
• Resistant to carbon deposition.No need for initial cell reduction.

Applications

• The perovskite anode can be used in any Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) instead of Ni/YSZ, where redox stability or hydrocarbon use is needed. This covers most applications of SOFCs.
• The University would welcome enquiries from commercial parties interested in developing commercial applications of fuel cells and fuel cell materials.

IP Status

The University of St Andrews has granted patents in Japan, USA, Canada, China, Australia and Europe (GB, France, Denmark, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Austria and Germany) and continues to perform R&D in advanced materials for fuel cells. The University is looking for a licensee to the patents and knowhow or a commercial collaborator to take it to market. Patent Numbers: PCT/GB2003/003344, Granted patents: US 7,504,172 , Europe 1532710. Additional information can be made available under a confidentiality agreement.

About Opportunity:

The use of TADF emitters represents a paradigm shift in emitter development wherein inexpensive small molecule organic compounds can now be used to harvest 100% of the excitons in an electroluminescent device and so obtain excellent power efficiencies. We have developed a series of deep blue TADF emitters for Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (OLED).

TADF allows purely organic emitters to harvest the triplet states as an alternative to the existing heavy-metal based phosphorescent OLEDs, which are known to be expensive and environmentally hostile. The emitters contain both carbazole donors and oxadiazole acceptors to effectively form excitons by a charge trapping mechanism. The blue colour emission wavelength of these emitters can be a valuable asset as there is currently a dearth of bright blue-emitting phosphorescent emitters for OLEDs.

The invention is primarily used for blue-emitting OLEDs or, when operating in parallel with green and red emitters, for energy-efficient white lighting devices. Due to the nature of TADF, potential applications also include temperature or oxygen sensors.

Key Benefits:

• Harvesting 100% of excitons via TDF for OLED devices
• Inexpensive organic emitters
• Environmentally more benign
• Deep blue emission colour
• Ambipolar characteristic

Applications:

• Blue-emitting OLEDs
• To operate in parallel with red and green emitters for energy efficient white light devices
• Due to the nature of TADF, potential applications also include temperature or oxygen sensors

IP Status:

Subject to UK patent application number 1507340.6 filed 29 April 2015.

About Opportunity:

It is estimated that companies around the world lose a total of $1.8 trillion annually (UK economy, £30 billion) due to counterfeited products. While counterfeiting imposes a challenge on every industry, the pharmaceutical and alcoholic beverage industry (e.g. Whisky producers) are affected most, since forged products can have life threatening implications. In fact, it is estimated that the deaths of up to one million people each year can be related to toxic or ineffective counterfeited drugs. Current product security features include raised printing, watermarks, micro-lettering, holograms and security inks. While these technologies contribute to the overall counterfeit resilience, the current security features are still often forged. Similarly, official documents such as passports or banknotes are prime candidates for counterfeiting. For example, in 2016, counterfeit Sterling bank notes with a face value £7.5 million were removed from circulation by the Bank of England, highlighting an ever-increasing need for sophisticated and counterfeit resilient security features.

Our distributed feedback membrane laser technology addresses this need and could become a widely applied and versatile security feature on valued documents or similar products. Due to their extreme mechanical flexibility, ultra-low weight and ultra-thin design, these membrane lasers can be applied to banknotes or other documents requiring authentication control to serve as unique security labels. Up to (10e15)n unique labels for (n different gain materials) can be created and read out using a simple contactless optical system. The specialist expertise and technology facilities needed to produce the lasers will make them almost impossible to counterfeit, rendering it a strong and reliable security feature. Furthermore, the high optical transparency of the membrane lasers, combined with their low thresholds and ultrathin design also allows their use as wearable security tags, even on contact lenses where they can complement biometric authentication with iris scans.

Key Benefits:

• Extremely flexible, ultrathin (< 500 nm) and ultralow weight (0.5 g/m2) membrane lasers
• Transferable to any object requiring authentication control (e.g. banknotes, passports, branded goods, pharmaceuticals, etc.)
• 10e15 unique barcode-like labels can be created
• High read-out stability under ambient conditions
• Straightforward contactless read out using a simple optical system
• High counterfeit resilience due to a sophisticated production procedure
• Uses low-cost mass-scale production via inkjet printing techniques and roll-to-roll processes

Applications:

• Banknotes
• Passports
• Branded goods
• Pharmeceuticals

IP Status:

The University filed UK Patent Application No. 1711097.4 on 10th July 2017 and has subsequently prepared EP and US national phase filings.