Energy

GRAD STUDENTS ON THE FRONT EDGE OF DISCOVERY

Elvis O. Ebikade is a fifth-year doctoral student studying chemical engineering under the advisement of Dion Vlachos, director of the Delaware Energy Institute. Ebikade earned his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Lagos in Nigeria. An undergraduate mentor and fellow of the Delaware Environmental Institute, Ebikade is eager to use his catalysis research to help solve global environmental challenges. He is co-founder of Lignolix, a UD-developed startup company focused on sustainably making materials from renewable biomass, such as lignin, a major component of trees and pulp and paper waste that is typically thrown away. The startup recently earned funding to scale their work at Delaware Innovation Space, a public-private partnership between UD, DuPont and the state of Delaware.

Changing the world, one food waste at a time

Leveraging science developed at the University of Delaware’s Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation (CCEI), Elvis Ebikade is exploring ways to convert potato peels into valuable chemicals and fuels. He thinks this can contribute to environmentally friendly alternatives to materials derived from petroleum, while also diverting food waste from landfills.

Globally, 1.3 billion tons of food — about 30 percent of what is produced — is wasted annually, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization. This number is expected to surge higher as global population increases.

Growing up in Lagos, Nigeria, Ebikade was intimately aware of food waste. Roughly one-fifth the size of Delaware, Lagos has a population similar to that of New York, around 20 million people. With that many people in so few square miles, seeing trash piled high on the street was not unusual.

“Seeing waste, food and the struggles people had … it is a reality I knew all too well,” he said.

At UD, Ebikade met Dion Vlachos, a leader in renewable energy research and catalysis — the acceleration of chemical reactions using catalysts. Vlachos, the Allan and Myra Ferguson Chair of Chemical Engineering and director of the Delaware Energy Institute, introduced Ebikade to the potential to turn food waste with zero value into valuable products. It was a conversation that hit home and sparked a fire in Ebikade, now a member of the Vlachos research group.

Bolstering biorefinery production

Already Ebikade’s work has led to a provisional patent on the technique to transform zero-value food waste into valuable bioproducts. UD’s Office of Economic Innovation and Partnerships is exploring ways to license the technology.

One suitable target market for the technique may be the struggling biorefinery sector. Ebikade explained that while biofuels can be made in high volume, economically speaking their value is relatively low. Through his work, Ebikade believes biorefineries that currently convert biomass to fuels can become even more profitable by leveraging complementary technologies that can transform the leftover waste from these processes. The Vlachos group recently published findings about the work in Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering, a journal of the American Chemical Society.

He is considering what other waste could provide a viable resource and thinking about ways to streamline processes to make their conversion into valuable products modular, smart and scalable. As an example, Ebikade and others recently published a paper in Green Chemistry evaluating the use of agricultural waste residues to produce antibacterials.

“This is where RAPID comes in,” said Ebikade, referring to the UD-directed node of the Rapid Advancement in Process Intensification Deployment (RAPID) Manufacturing Institute led by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). The UD-led RAPID effort focuses on using catalysis and reactors to develop low-cost, energy efficient manufacturing processes and technologies with reduced environmental impacts.

“I’m doing fundamental and applied work at CCEI. But then, through the Delaware Energy Institute, combined with RAPID, we can think about taking technologies into the real world.”