DeakinBio has developed a technology, termed BioSintering®, to produce advanced bio-based materials from organic waste such as chickpea broth or algae, along with widely available inorganic powders such as crushed limestone. The bio-based materials have compositions similar to natural materials such as seashells and pearl. Initial applications are as sustainable alternatives to ceramic tiles, with the potential to reduce the carbon footprint of tile manufacture by up to 90 per cent.

Traditional ceramic tiles have a high carbon footprint because they need to be fired at high temperatures to harden (sinter) and glaze the products. Making one square metre of tiles can emit up to 16 kg of carbon dioxide. DeakinBio’s BioSintering and BioGlazing processes remove the need for firing and glazing, and the ambition is to produce tiles with similar strength and functionality to their conventional equivalents but with a much lower carbon footprint – currently calculated at 0.92 kg of CO2e emissions per square metre according to an independent Life Cycle Assessment. It is intended to make the tiles on industry-standard production lines.

BioSintering® and BioGlazing have been used to date to make materials based on the principles of combining biopolymers, water, and calcium carbonate particles to produce a biocomposite material after undergoing low-temperature processing. The inorganic material is currently powdered limestone, although DeakinBio is exploring the use of crushed seashells, a waste product from the seafood industry, as a source of calcium carbonate in the future.

The Company’s first material, Fabalith®, combines calcium carbonate with a binder made from chickpea broth, a waste product from the food industry.

DeakinBio was founded in June 2021 by BioSintering® and BioGlazing inventor Dr Aled Roberts who is based at the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, University of Manchester where he is a Research Fellow. Dr Roberts holds a PhD in Materials Chemistry from the University of Liverpool. He was lead researcher on the project to create StarCrete® – a new concrete-like material made from extra-terrestrial dust, potato starch and a pinch of salt, which could one day be used to build infrastructure in space.

The Company is also exploring the feasibility of new materials made from bio-manufacturing waste streams, such as microbial waste, after winning a £92,364 grant from Innovate UK.

DeakinBio won the £50,000 first prize in the University of Manchester’s Eli Harari Graphene Enterprise Awards for 2022.