Chemists Make a Breakthrough in Waste Recycling Technology

09:46, July 16, 2020

The technology is safe, cheap, and neat

Research engineers of the organic synthesis laboratory of the Ural Federal University Daria Tambasova and Polina Lyubyakina, under the guidance of Professor Elena Kovaleva, have developed a safe and economical waste processing technology. Waste containing natural polysaccharides, including cellulose and chitin, is supposed to be processed.

The technology provides for the reusable use of materials (aluminum oxide and enzymes, as well as their complexes), accordingly, it is economical. At the same time, it is a waste-free production, environmentally friendly and aimed at processing hazardous waste. And the output is environmentally friendly and healthy products: for example, biofuels and medicinal substances.

The essence of the technology is the development and use of various heterogeneous catalysts based on aluminum oxide.

“In our technology, this inexpensive material with easily variable surface characteristics is a solid carrier on which we immobilize specific enzymes or enzyme complexes that decompose natural polysaccharides,” says Dr. Daria Tambasova.

Enzymes with aluminum oxide are "glued" together by the organic layer, glutaraldehyde or silanes (silicas) act as binding agents.

“This system is like a three-layer pie. The first layer is the oxide carrier, then the binding agent, and the enzyme completes this structure. Submerged in an aqueous medium, catalysts decompose natural polysaccharides to monosaccharides within 24 hours. The function of the alumina carrier is to provide repeated use of enzymes until they are depleted of their activity. The enzyme can be re-immobilized on the same support, and the heterogeneous catalytic system will be ready for use again. Since enzymes are expensive compounds, their immobilization on carriers makes the process of processing polysaccharides cheaper,” Dr. Daria Tambasova describes.

The enzymes used by Ural Federal University chemists are ecologically safe, aggressive and toxic substances such as alkalis and acids are not involved in the technology. Thus, both the process of processing polysaccharides and the resulting products do not harm the environment - unlike, for example, the traditional method of producing industrial alcohol from woodworking waste by acid hydrolysis.

“The alcohol obtained from cellulose from our technology does not contain harmful impurities and can be used as biofuel and for medical purposes. In addition to wood, our catalysts are capable of recycling waste containing chitin, the highly degradable chitinous shells of shrimp and other arthropods. As a result, we get glucosamine - a medicinal substance that is good for joints. The developed heterogeneous catalytic systems can also be used for processing household waste containing organic impurities, it is safe, as opposed to incineration technology,” comments Daria Tambasova.

The technology is a breakthrough, and it has no analogues, was developed thanks to grant support from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research. It is one of the priority areas of activity of the recently established university center for biotransformation technologies.

About Biotransformation Technology Сenter

The functions of the Biotransformation Technology Сenter, created on the basis of the Institute of Chemical Engineering of the Ural Federal University, are to conduct theoretical, experimental and applied research of the world level, generate developments for subsequent implementation in production practice and fulfill orders from Russian and foreign enterprises in various sectors of the economy. The strategic partners of the university in the project are the Ural Biosynthesis Research and Production Center and the Institute of Immunology and Physiology of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The initiators of the Biotransformation Technology Сenter project have advanced solutions and developments that have no analogues both in our country and abroad. The areas of their application are the processing of vegetable, animal and industrial waste (in particular, nuclear, metallurgical and food), water purification from heavy metals, production of functional, that is, healthy food products.