A collaborative R&D project to design, build & trial a modular unit for the continuous production of a range of market leading surfactants, currently manufactured in the UK by Croda Europe Ltd. Based on patented Continuous Oscillating Baffle Reactor technology, the project will deliver a new process for the manufacture of existing products, with significant improvements in operational & capital costs & process sustainability without impacting product quality. Processes are specifically designed for integration with existing batch manufacturing assets to provide increased capacity without the need for new supporting infrastructure & extended footprint. The consortium believes that the 30% targeted reduction in operational costs, combined with reduced capital requirements will make investment in UK manufacturing a competitive option in a global market. This industry led, four partner consortium (Croda, CPI, UoC IfM & NiTech) will establish technical & commercial viability of the concept; de-risking future commercial investment in the proposed technology. The impact of this strategy to create flexible manufacturing capacity on existing business models will be explored.

The project is a collaboration between Newcastle University and Croda Europe to develop tools to produce natural UV-absorbing substances for use in sunscreens. These materials are produced by microorganisms which survive in ecosystems which are exposed to high light intensity and are an important mechanism for protecting cells against the harmful effects of UV-light. The project uses the genes from a natural organism (algae) in a bacterium with a long history of safe use in the manufacture of amino acids and vitamins. The manufacturing process is renewable and uses sustainable raw materials which do not compete with the food chain. The products developed in the project will be shown to be safe to humans and the environment and will reduce the overall dependence on petrochemical resources.

Surfactants are surface-active molecules which we encounter daily for instance in cleaning agents or personal care products. The major amount of surfactants is still produced petro-chemically. Surfactants from chemical synthesis based on renewables are on the rise but the required oils originate from tropical plants. Thus there is a special interest in new tailor-made, biodegradable surfactants from renewable substrate flexible processes with native European sustainable resources. Natural biosurfactants, especially glycolipids, can be produced using microbial or enzymatic processes which results in a wide range of molecules with varying sugar groups and hydrophobic lipid moieties. Their unique molecular structure often leads to beneficial effects which create an added value for the desired applications. Only few microbial glycolipids are already manufactured on an industrial scale due to a low microbial productivity of desired glycolipid derivatives and a cost-intensive downstream processing. One aim of SurfGlyco is to enhance the potential of the underexploited microbial glycolipids which show promising yields and an enormous molecular variability. By adjusted feeding strategies and fermentations connected to an effective downstream processing we want to produce tailor-made biosurfactants with optimized performance in various market areas. As second aim SurfGlyco will generate novel glycolipids of varying sugar and lipid components by using highly selective enzymatic reactions under mild reaction conditions. Currently, enzymatic synthesis still suffers from low space-time yields and a narrow range of products. SurfGlyco wants to overcome these problems by using stable enzymes with altered substrate specificities and the use of deep eutectic solvents as non-toxic reaction media which recently have been shown to enable high glycolipid yields.

The aim of this project is to develop advanced antimicrobial coatings to control and prevent biofilm formation, which costs the UK economy tens of billion pounds per annum in damage. The project is led by the global market leader in speciality chemicals, Croda, in collaboration with SME, Scanwel, and the University of Liverpool who provide advanced characterisation tools to help optimise the technology and enable its translation to a number of market sectors.

The world has changed markedly with respect to transparency and need to know in the last years, particularly in relation to Personal Care formulated goods. Market trends for; cruelty-free, biodegradable, natural, 'free-from', coupled with increased social media and online influencers, growth in independent cosmetic companies and the need for established formulators to protect their brand image has meant "what" a product is, what it contains, and where it came from is as important as "how does it work". This project will explore the feasibility of developing a digital supply chain platform that is accessible to all in the Personal Care supply chain which furnishes Brand Owners with the data they require to support consumer needs. The platform will be developed by a UK-based technology start-up working with to UK based manufacturing companies producing specialty ingredients for Personal Care sector.