Amount awarded: £6,149,362
Led by: United Utilities
Partners: Aquaminerals, Cellvation, Cranfield University, Glasgow Caledonian University, Royal HaskoningDHV, Severn Trent Plc, South West Water Limited, United Utilities Water Limited, Yara
Biopolymers provide water companies and customers with the opportunity to supply fully sustainable raw materials for the production of several high value products. The production and marketing of biopolymers from wastewater and sludge opens up opportunities to realise several routes to circular economies. It also supports our industry in achieving Net Zero Carbon by 2030 by reducing our needs for manufactured polymers which we use in daily operational activities. Biopolymers are produced naturally by bacteria in wastewater treatment. If this material can be extracted it could be used instead of procuring chemicals across multiple industries.
“This truly collaborative project will really open the door for the water industry with regards to the potential for biopolymer recovery from our wastewater and bioresources facilities. This diverse partnership will offer fantastic perspectives on circular economy approaches, reducing our carbon emissions whilst driving greater value for our customers.” – Pat Horne, Head of Strategy & Commercial Bioresources, Energy & Carbon, United Utilities
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The BICE project is delivering to the agreed schedule. In the past quarter we have focused on the procurement of enabling works contractor services and planning for the receipt of samples from the demonstration plants once they are operational. We have confirmed Costain as our enabling works contractor through their existing framework agreement with United Utilities, which has helped us to keep risks and costs as low as possible. We plan to start site works in January 2025 allowing us to be on schedule for installation (February) and commissioning (March). This required discussions with our site Operations Team and our Environmental Regulations Team to align to project requirements and not adversely impacting on the Blackburn site. Work has continued of how to process and analyse samples from the demonstration plants. We now have a detailed list of determinands and which partners are best placed to complete the analysis. Where gaps in capability exist we have engaged the University of Manchester to understand where they can support. We have also completed a two-day testing facility visit to CPI in Teeside to plan the refinement assessments required for the different product streams the water industry could potentially supply with our biopolymers.
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For more information on Biopolymers in the Circular Economy, take a look at the following resources:
