Sustainable Bioprocessing as an unexpected Sizewell C benefit?

The UK government is committed to reaching its Net Zero target by 2050. Decarbonisation is an essential component of this strategy as we move away from utilising fossil carbon for energy generation and manufacturing. Certain industries, including the polymer industry, have few alternatives to utilising petrochemical feedstocks. Advances in fermentation technology, coupled with developments in synthetic biology now enable us to convert sustainable biological feedstocks (e.g. agricultural waste) into products that previously required fossil feedstocks. Sustainable bioprocesses require a constant supply of warm liquid in which the production organism can be cultivated. The Nuclear power industry in the UK traditionally utilises seawater as a coolant, releasing water ~11 C warmer than ambient temperature into the sea. We propose to couple this unrecovered value with a sustainable bioprocess to produce carbon neutral products, including materials, pharmaceuticals, food additives, dyes and platform chemicals.

Our Speaker:

Dr. Nick Tucker is the Associate Dean Research and Knowledge Exchange in the school of Allied Health Sciences at the University of Suffolk. He is a molecular microbiologist interested in the biology of Pseudomonas bacteria. This genus contains pathogens such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa as well as the important biotechnology chassis organism Pseudomonas putida. Nick is also investigating Escherichia and Vibrio species in Suffolk’s waterways.

Nick grew up in Suffolk and studied biochemistry at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh followed by human molecular genetics at Imperial College London where he gained an interest in gene regulation. In 2002 he moved to the University of East Anglia to study transcriptional regulation of the Escherichia coli nitrosative stress response and completed this work at the BBSRC John Innes Centre in 2005. He remained at the John Innes Centre as a post-doctoral research fellow until establishing his own research group at the University of Strathclyde in 2009. During 13 years at Strathclyde Nick’s work has been funded by various sources including BBSRC, MRC and the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre, where he served a term as a member of the IBioIC Scientific Advisory Board. Nick maintains an honorary research role at Strathclyde and is an active member of the Microbiology Society as an elected member of the Prokaryotic Division and an editor of Microbiology.

Join us at Woodbridge Methodist Church for an inspiring evening of knowledge-sharing and networking

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