Do you want to design a creative bio-based solution in a multidisciplinary student team? The Bio-based Innovation Student Challenge Europe (BISC-E) encourages students to explore the emerging bio-based work field while developing a new bio-based product or process. Are you up for the challenge?
"Contribute to the sustainability of society by designing a bio-based product or process". This was the task set for six pioneering student teams participating in the second fully-fledged European final of the BISC-E student competition. The six teams presented their innovative projects to a jury consisting of leading figures from the bio-based industry. An audience of bio-based industry representatives decided which of the top three teams was the overall winner at the BIC event BioSYNERGISE. Team Citrion from Greece came out on top with their idea to isolate high-value components for bitter oranges.
The Bio-based Innovation Student Challenge Europe (BISC-E) seeks to promote breakthrough innovation in the bio-based sector in an annual competition between some of Europe's most promising university students. The competition was initiated in the Netherlands in 2017 with the aim of bridging the knowledge gap between students and bio-based materials by TKI-BBE, a platform contributing to market uptake of bio-based innovation. Building on its success, the competition is now held in six European countries (Belgium, Finland, Greece, Spain, the Netherlands, and Portugal).
The six teams first presented their innovative projects to a jury consisting of leading figures from the bio-based sector. An audience of bio-based industry representatives then voted for the winner amongst the top three teams at the BIC event BioSYNERGISE. Team Citrion from Greece came out on top with their idea to isolate high-value components for bitter oranges. The Dutch team Suckerspheres were runners-up. They developed an idea to produce biodegradable microbeads for personal care products. The Finnish team ZeoPack came third. They developed a bio-based packaging concept to extend the shelf life of fresh produce.
Three other teams also competed in this year's competition. The Portuguese team presented their idea for the removal of microplastics in water. Their colleagues from Belgium had an idea to use hair waste as a fertiliser and the Spanish team found new ways to upcycle shrimp waste streams.
The jury were notably impressed by the high quality of this year's submissions, noted Nelo Emerencia, chairman of the BIC Education team and Director of Programming at the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC). "To realise the Vision for a circular bio-society by 2050, we must mainstream bioeconomic curricula across education systems and better align educational systems with industrial needs. The BISC-E competition is a demonstration of the bio-based industries commitment to making this happen".
The videos from all participating teams can be consulted below:
Last week two student teams competed for the Dutch ticket to the European final of BISC-E, the competition in which students design a product or process that fits a circular economy. The Leiden-Groningen team SuckerSpheres won with biodegradable microbeads for cosmetics.
This year a team from TU Delft and a team with students from Leiden and Groningen had registered. These are fewer teams than previous years, probably because of corona. Nevertheless, both teams got serious about developing their ideas.
Insulation material from waste water
The team LST from Delft has developed the insulation material Kanbiotherm. Kanbiotherm consists for 80% of MMT clay. The remaining 20% consists of Kaumera, a polymer extracted from the sludge of wastewater treatment plants. The combination of both raw materials results in a lightweight material that is fire-resistant, water-repellent and insulating. The team calculated that the CO2 footprint of Kanbiotherm is a factor 35 smaller compared to the current insulation materials.
Degradable microplastics
SuckerSpheres, the team of students from Leiden and Groningen, developed a solution to the environmental problem of microbeads in cosmetics. The microbeads are not captured in wastewater treatment plants and eventually end up in the sea. Because the plastics are not or hardly biodegradable, they accumulate in the ecosystem. The team developed a biodegradable microbead that can be produced from organic waste streams via fermentation.
The jury, consisting of Ed de Jong (Avantium), Freek Smedema (RVO), Luuk van der Wielen (TU Delft), Floris Rutjes (Radboud University) and Kees de Gooijer (TKI-BBE) awarded team SuckerSpheres first place. Jury-chairman De Gooijer indicated that the quality of both ideas were close to each other. SuckerSpheres had just worked out their idea a little better and addressed a major environmental problem. Therefore, on 19-20 October, they will participate in the European final organised by the joint bio-based industry within the Bio-based Industry Consortium (BIC).