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Significant economic impact was achieved as a result of research into polymer nanocomposites and their formation, conducted at WestCHEM from 2000 to 2010. Collaboration over the six-year period 2004-2010 with Carron Phoenix Ltd, the world's largest manufacturer of composite `granite' kitchen sinks, led to nanocomposite technology being incorporated into over one million sinks, generating income for the company in excess of £50M from 2007 to the present day. Considerable production efficiency gains saved in excess of £1M annually through the reduction in manufacturing time, the reduction of raw materials wastage, and the reduction in landfill costs (and commensurate environmental benefit) for failed and out-of-spec products. In addition, a £4M capital investment by the company at the Falkirk plant was secured, enabling the company to sustain its leading position in the designer kitchen sink market. With the site consequently designated as the parent company's competency centre for composite sink technology, employment for 170 workers was secured.
A manufacturing process developed by Bradford researchers has revolutionised the way endodontists perform root canal treatments. When coated with a hydrophilic polymer, the highly-filled hygroscopic material has enabled UK company DRFP to develop SmartPoint — a new endodontic technique that dramatically reduces failure rates of root canal treatments from 11-30% over five years to approximately 1%, and gives lower levels of post-operative pain when compared with conventional techniques. The technology has won three awards for innovation and DRFP has expanded significantly, with a dedicated production facility and sales team offering visits to dentists to demonstrate the benefits of the technology.
Research at Heriot-Watt University (HWU) has led to the development of a new continuous oscillatory baffled reactor and crystalliser technology. This has direct economic and environmental impact in the chemical, pharmaceutical and food industries. Waste is substantially reduced, while the scale of the equipment and plant is dramatically decreased, reducing time to market, start-up and maintenance costs and on-going energy usage. The reactor/crystalliser was taken to market through a spinout, NiTech Solutions Ltd, with a peak of 16 employees in the REF period. Genzyme (now Sanofi) has implemented NiTech's technology for biopharmaceutical manufacture since 2007, with multi-100 ton production and sales of multi-£100M pa. The technology now underpins the larger-scale joint venture, the Continuous Manufacture and Crystallisation (CMAC) consortium, launched in 2010. CMAC has attracted over £60M investment, much of it from three major industrial partners, GSK, AstraZeneca and Novartis, with additional second-tier investors. CMAC is accelerating the introduction of new process-intensification technologies in the process industries.
Researchers in QUB developed the first commercial process control system (Rotolog) and simulation software (RotoSim) for the Rotomoulding Plastics Industry. There has also been recent commercialisation of a new energy-saving system, the Rotocooler.
The fundamental understanding of the process that was developed also enabled the moulding of new materials for new application areas, notably motorcycle fuel tanks (now used by BMW, Ducati, Harley Davidson and Honda) and the world's first concept car made from sustainable polymers.
Global economic and environmental impact arises from a significantly more efficient process, better product quality, a greater selection of processable materials and thus increased sales.
The impact presented is the use of research carried out in the School of Chemical Engineering by a range of multinational food industries (inc. Unilever, Cargill, PepsiCo) to engineer a series of fat-reduced foods such as low fat spreads (LFS), dressings, margarine, sauces and mayonnaise. This has allowed them to build up a portfolio of novel low fat products; this portfolio would be much reduced or in some cases non-existent without the research contribution and capability generated by the Birmingham group as stated by Peter Lillford5.1 (former Chief Scientist, Unilever) and John Casey, (Vice President Biological Sciences, Unilever)5.2. These products are a significant and growing market segment e.g. LFS now outsell margarine/butter in a number of countries and are estimated to be worth globally 10 Billion Euros per year between 2008-13. Thus these products are having a significant impact on the industries' profitability. In addition, consumption of low fat foods act to tackle obesity with knock on effects for government (health service, lost GDP etc.) and the community as a whole.
Research at Brunel University demonstrated how the Powder Impression Moulding (PIM) process can be adapted to form a solid-skinned and foamed core polymer lightweight sandwich panel from 100% mixed post-consumer polymers. The research showed that unlike conventional plastic recycling technologies, this process was tolerant to high concentrations of impurities. It was also shown that coarse flakes could be used as feedstock, removing the need to grind the feedstock to a fine powder. This, for the first time, established the PIM process as a recyling method and provides a source of income for industries collecting post-consumer plastics. In 2009, ERT Plc, who own the IP associated with PIM, signed a licence agreement with 2K Manufacturing Ltd to manufacture and sell a range of flat-board products made from 100% mixed post-consumer plastics. These boards are sold as EcoSheets and are 2K Manufacturing's only product. 2K buy post-consumer recycled plastics from recycling firms who run Municipal Recycling Facilities, (MRF), providing them with increased income from waste collected from consumers, and sell EcoSheets to a variety of industries and distributors for applications in construction, agriculture, flood control facilities and military uses. For commercial reasons, exact production and sales figures are not available, but we estimate that at least 1 million boards have been produced and sold since 2009. The impact on the end user is that, although the price of an EcoSheet is comparable to the plywood board it replaces, EcoSheet does not rot, is more workable, and can be recycled several times.
ERT Plc have licensed the technology enhanced by the Brunel research to a number of other businesses.Thus the research at Brunel has assisted the creation of a new industrial sector, and a new product with many advantages, including reduced reliance on virgin polymers and reduced environmental burdens (such as landfill costs), over the product it replaces. This has created economic and environmental benefits at all stages of the consumer plastic cycle, creating new industries and jobs.
The development of disentangled, ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene at Loughborough University since January 2007 has provided an environmental friendly route to the manufacture of high modulus, high tensile strength tapes with applications ranging from body armour to helmets, ropes and cables. Commercialisation is being undertaken by the Japanese company Teijin, in the Netherlands, under the brand name Endumax®. The new business, started in 2011, now employs >80 staff and predicts annual sales of >€15M from 2014 with an increase of ~10% over the first five years. Competitors such as Du Pont (Tensylon®) and DSM (Dyneema BT10®) have also initiated development of products using the new process route.
The technology in this impact study is based on organofunctionalised silica materials that can address market needs for high purity in compounds that underpin many areas of the pharma, electronic and medical sectors as well as the recovery of limited resources such as precious metals that are used in diverse industries. Since the launch of the product portfolio in 2006, the materials have become embedded in purification or recovery steps in commercial production processes of leading mining (South Africa), pharmaceutical (UK) and petrochemical (Germany) companies and make a significant impact on the business of these companies as well as limiting waste of limited resources.
The University of Nottingham's School of Chemistry has developed a novel method of incorporating thermally or chemically labile biologically active substances into polymers. This has been achieved by using supercritical carbon dioxide as a medium for the synthesis and modification of polymeric materials. The method has been employed as the basis for new drug-delivery devices whose viability in the healthcare sphere has been confirmed by patient trials. The spin-out company, Critical Pharmaceuticals Ltd, has delivered a range of economic benefits, including job creation, the securing of millions of pounds' worth of investment and a number of revenue-generating research collaborations.
Research at Kingston University into the use of flame spray pyrolysis (FSP) to manufacture metal oxide nanoparticles has resulted in the creation of an industrial FSP nanoparticle production line. This achieves production rates an order of magnitude higher than was previously achievable, while allowing particle size to be controlled at the same scale as existing small FSP processes.
TECNAN, a Spanish SME, established in 2007, that manufactures and sells nanomaterials on the international market, has used this production line to produce a range of nanoparticles for commercial customers, for use in a wide range of applications. As well as allowing a broad product range to be offered, the production line also achieves a cost reduction of over 30% compared to previous manufacturing methods.