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From waste cooking oil to protective coating

Students of the Biobased Materials master’s programme took third prize in the Biobased Innovation Student Challenge Europe with their idea to convert waste cooking oil into vinyl ester resins.

‘Make the world a bit more sustainable by developing a biobased product of process.’ This was the outline of the Biobased Innovation Student Challenge Europe (BISC-E) in which 12 teams competed to come up with the best idea. Each concept was assessed on sustainability and technical and economic feasibility.

Team Carbon wins 3rd place in BISC-E
Team Carbon Crew: Bernal, Liliana, Nika, Tinashe, and Yorgia

Benefits of waste cooking oil

A UM team called ‘Team Carbon Crew’ formed out of 5 Biobased Materials master’s students came up with the idea of biobased vinyl ester resins derived from waste cooking oils. This resin can be used in a variety of coating applications that are especially durable against external influences such as UV-damage or scratches. For instance, this coating would be very interesting for the automotive industry.

Less burden on the environment

The concept of producing ester resin from waste cooking oils has a very significant advantage. Because of the abundant and season/region-independent waste stream, there is no shortage of raw materials. This means less burden is put on the environment as would be the case with farming oil crops such as rapeseed and palm oil.

About the BISC-E
BISC-E is a yearly competition for bachelor’s and master’s students. The competition was created by TKI-BBE with the aim of bringing students into contact with the biobased work field. For more information: https://www.bisc-e.eu/

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