Indo- UK project-1

Economic non-food sugar from variable mixed solid waste for high value chemical products supported by Innovate UK and Department of Biotechnology

The project is developing the IB required to test the vision of an integrated, profitable, non-food sugar producing commercial plant design which can adapt to different sources/compositions of Indian MSW segregated biowaste. The team is assessing viable MSbioW; develop new pretreatment technology; high activity, tolerant and cost effective oxidative and hydrolytic enzymes specific for high ligno-cellulosic waste; a more productive process; the use of non-chemical waste for biochar and AD; ensure plant control and integration; economic viability and representative sugar test samples by building a pilot plant. The key to a viable, sustainable operation in India is maximising the economic production of non-food sugar that is increasingly demanded in sustainable biodegradable high-value products. The socio- techno-economic outcomes will develop society, wealth and environmental improvement in India with potential impacts upon DAC countries and the UK. Defiant Renewables will design and develop the pilot facility which the primary deliverable of the project. The project will bring a new change in MSW processing in India. The developed process will supply sustainable raw material for biodegradable polymers an ever growing market in India. The use of Indian bio-waste for energy alone is commercially unattractive, whereas the sale of chemicals derived from it offers the potential for profitability. The key to profitability is a low cost, flexible and productive process that competes with food sugar to make non-food products.

Indo- UK- project-2

BEFWAM-BIOENERGY, FERTILISER AND CLEAN WATER FROM INVASIVE AQUATIC MACROPHYTES

Water Hyacinth (Eichhorniacrassipes) is an proliferation is normally associated with eutrophication caused by agricultural runoff constitutes major issue in India and Africa resulting in large ecosystems. It can block waterways and irrigation canals, and reduce biodiversity restricting the movement of fish and boats with direct breeding grounds for mosquitoes and other vectors of diseases such as malaria, bilharzia, dengue and onchocerciasis river blindness). The removal and clean up of rivers is associated with high operational costs, environmental concerns and spread of diseases. The project will focus on the utilisation of invasive aquatic macrophytes such as water hyacinth in combination with nutrient rich waste and immobilised microbial systems to maximise the production of biogas, clean water and recovery of this nutrients in low income communities, by developing innovative biotechnology solutions that promote resource efficiency and long-term sustainable services. BEFWAM will support knowledge transfer from high- and mid-income countries (UK and India) to low-income countries in Africa (Uganda). Defiant Renewables is an industrial partner to the project and playing a key role in developing the technology in terms of designing bioreactors and highly active bacterial consortium to effectively produce large quantities of biogas from water hyacinth. The developed technology will be on massive scale in implemented in India for cleaning up rivers and in turn producing energy and fertilizer from it. The project will find its wide spread usage under Clean India, Ganga action plan Yamuna rejuvenation.

Project 3

NWaste2H₂ project

Denitrification (DN) is a necessary energy intensive and capital expensive process retrofit at wastewater treatment plants (WTTP), as nitrogen in their effluent can cause toxicity to fish and eutriphication of waterways. During DN, up to 14.6% of the total nitrogen load of wastewater treatment plants could be emitted to the atmosphere as nitrous oxide (N₂O), a greenhouse gas with a global warming potential 298 times higher than CO₂ and responsible for 8% of climate forcing. WTTP operate with two streams rich in N: the raw feedstock urine in the form of urea (upstream) and the digestate liquor (DL) in the form of mainly ammonia (downstream). In many AD processes, digestate liquor is not recycled as fertiliser. Denitrification of digestate liquor at WWT currently represents a very significant capital and energy burden which results in significant nitrous oxide (N₂O) gas emissions, when N₂O has a global warming potential roughly 300 times that of CO₂ over a 100 years horizon. The NWaste2H₂ project focuses on developing low cost catalytical steam reforming processes to convert biogas obtained by anaerobic digestion process and nitrogen rich water to hydrogen.