The OXIPRO team from UAB recently made a great impact at the 15th Mediterranean Congress in Chemical Engineering, which took place in Barcelona from 30th May to 2nd June 2023. The congress united science and industry, acting as a unique bridge for the scientific and business communities to be congregate and network in an unparalleled context.
The UAB team from the UAB Bioprocess Engineering and Applied Biocatalysis group, which specifically works on the cotton production, took an active role and presented several works including the latest results from OXIPRO. PhD student Yerko Fredes, who is working on the biobleaching process development, presented his research and succinctly delivered an overview of the most relevant achievements so far.
The congress provided the perfect platform and opportunity for disseminating OXIPRO’s results and enabled the UAB team to meet other researchers from academia and industry working on bioprocess development.
About the UAB Team
The group of Bioprocess Engineering and Applied Biocatalysis of the department of Chemical, Biological end Environmental Engineering of UAB is one of the participants of OXIPRO. The main objective of UAB is to contribute to the development of greener processes in the textile industry. Specifically, the group is going to develop an eco-friendlier and less resource intensive continuous process for cotton bleaching. Aiming to do that, oxidoreductases genetically engineered by the OXIPRO team will be produced in the Fermentation Pilot Plant of the UAB to be finally applied in the development of a biobleaching process using wastewaters generated in previous steps of the cotton treatment.
The developed biobleaching process is expected to reduce consumption of H2O2, caustic soda and acetic acid up to 70%, energy up to 50%, and water up to 45% contributing to increase circularity by recycling wastewaters.