From sawdust to car parts: Innovate UK supports ultrasonic biorefining for a sustainable automotive sector
Innovate UK has recently awarded almost £600,000 in funding to a consortium led by the UK-based green technology company Sonichem to support its new groundbreaking project called CARMA – carbon-neutral agroforestry-derived resins to materials for automotive applications. The grant was given through Innovate UK’s ‘Resource efficiency for materials and manufacturing (REforMM)’ collaborative research and development competition, and will allow the multidisciplinary group to apply patented Sonichem technology to the development and commercialisation of bio-based feedstocks for the transport industry as a first use case.
Plastics have been widely used in automotive manufacture for many years, and now account for around 50 per cent of total car volume, including dashboards, seating, battery packs, and thermal management systems in electric vehicles. However, most of these materials are not recovered from end-of-life vehicles,1 and instead enter landfill or are incinerated. This means that the global transport sector generates over 350 million tonnes of plastic waste every year, representing a significant environmental threat. Alongside this, the transport sector is under increasing pressure to rapidly decarbonise its manufacturing processes.
Alternative, sustainable methods of plastic production – such as biorefining – offer a solution to these issues, and could enable manufacturers to meet the increasing demand for new vehicles, while still achieving their environmental targets. Biorefining involves processing low-carbon feedstocks – such as lignin from lignocellulosic biomass – into intermediate chemicals or additives that can be made into renewable plastics, replacing fossil-derived chemicals and helping to lower carbon emissions. Lignin – the world’s second most abundant natural biopolymer2 – presents a plentiful alternative to the finite, conventional petrochemical-based feedstocks currently used to produce plastics, resins and composites for the automotive industry.
Sonichem – formerly Bio-Sep – seeks to revolutionise green chemical production using ultrasonics. The company’s recent rebrand to Sonichem reinforces its focus on producing sustainable chemicals of the future, and the new name reflects the business’s core proprietary technology for the ultrasonic processing of low-value woody biomass to extract high-value green chemicals. The proprietary Sonichem technique fractionates UK-sourced sawdust – which is generated as a by-product from forestry operations – into hemicellulose sugars, microcrystalline cellulose and lignin. These materials can then be used as low-carbon feedstocks for platform chemicals in a range of applications, including pharmaceuticals, food and drink, and cosmetics.
The CARMA project aims to extend this pioneering approach into the transport industry, enhancing the country’s bioeconomy and establishing a one-of-a-kind, resilient lignin supply chain within the UK that will help steer the sector toward a net-zero future. The programme will be headed up by Sonichem, and conducted in collaboration with an international consortium of industry leaders including the Centre for Process Innovation, Scott Bader, the National Composites Centre, Polestar and SHD Composites, with each company contributing specific expertise and technical knowledge. The financial boost awarded through Innovate UK will be a vital resource for the project, accelerating the commercialisation of bio-based platform chemical feedstocks for automotive manufacturing.
Producing home-grown green plastics aligns with the UK Government's focus on resource-efficient, sustainable industrial materials as it could significantly reduce the UK’s reliance on imported composite materials, which currently amounts to approximately £250-260 million per year. The ultimate aim of Sonichem’s CARMA initiative is to contribute to a greener and more sustainable transport sector in the UK, placing the country at the forefront of innovation and presenting a blueprint for other industry disruptors to follow in the future.
References
1 Oakdene Hollins. 2021. Driving change: a circular economy for automotive plastic. https://www.oakdenehollins.com/reports/2021/11/17/driving-change-a-circular-economy-for-automotive-plastic
2 Boerjan W, Ralph J, and Baucher M. 2003. Lignin Biosynthesis. Annual Review of Plant Biology, 54(1): 519–546. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.arplant.54.031902.134938