Coventry University and n2s were awarded Knowledge Exchange/Transfer Initiative of the Year by ‘The Awards’ in Liverpool on Thursday 7 December 2023.
Of the 50 million tonnes of electronic waste produced globally each year, only 15-20% is properly recycled. The rest is often shipped to other countries for disposal.
We collaborated with Dr Sebastien Farnaud and Professor Derek Renshaw through a Knowledge Exchange Partnership with Coventry University to develop an innovative solution to sustainably extract valuable materials within printed circuit boards (PCBs).
The partnership validated bioleaching as a sustainable recovery method to extract precious metals from PCBs.
We established a microbiology laboratory to transfer and embed the knowledge. This is the first industrial application of bioleaching to recover metals from e-waste, which has transformed our commercial capacity. As a result of this exchange, our sister company Bioscope Technologies was developed to accelerate the commercialisation of this approach and increase the scale of materials being processed.
This year’s awards attracted a record-breaking amount of entries, with 74 institutions making the shortlist. We were ecstatic to be nominated alongside other highly ranked universities working on fascinating projects in STEM and waste management. Congrats to the other winners from the evening.
