From crustacean waste to battery electrodes (RD148)

Project Summary:

The “From Crustacean Waste to Battery Electrodes” project developed by Recycling Ocean Resources (ROR) addresses innovation and sustainability of the UK’s fisheries, aquaculture and seafood industries on different levels.

The seafood industry is a major polluter in the UK, with 40-60% of the raw material wet weight contributing to waste generation. Unfortunately, current strategies for seafood waste management are ineffective and unsustainable, with the waste either improperly discarded or land filled. ROR offers innovative strategies to sustainably circumvent the additional waste management challenge in an economically viable manner. ROR’s project adopts circular economy principles via value extraction from highly polluting waste streams and introduces an effective strategy combatting global warming issues.

The firm aims to optimise a complete value chain for the production of bio-carbon applicable in energy storage technology, departing from the recovery of crustacean waste to the conversion of bio-carbon. Initial studies in collaboration with the University of Exeter, Swansea University, ULB Brussels and TU Eindhoven uncovered additional applications including the use of non-conventional water sources, recycling the microbe-containing exit streams and the potential of employing crustacean waste as a renewable carbon source for bioelectrode production.

The project integrates a microbial enabled chitin production process and a hydrothermal conversion step to produce a bioelectrode. In the R&D phase, ROR will focus on optimising yields in the chitin extraction process and the applications of hydrochar. Techno-economic assessments will demonstrate the economic viability of the project and the possible creation of 50 new jobs in the South-West of England.