Unfold the Hidden Value of Agricultural Side-streams

Principal Investigator: Professor Anderson SHUM (Professor from Department of Mechanical Engineering)

This project is showcased in the fourth exhibition – Innovation for Impacts.

About the scholar

Professor Anderson SHUM

Research interests: 
• Emulsion
• Soft condensed matter physics
• Microfluidics
• Emulsion-templated materials
• Bio-microfludics
• Drug delivery
• Cosmetics applications and Food applications

Email: ashum@hku.hk
website: https://meweb.hku.hk/~ashum/anderson.html

Project information

Microplastics are raising increasing health concerns. Their ubiquitous presence in the environment can come from lysis of plastics films or bags, and also from plastic microbeads used in personal care products. Since 2022, microplastics have been found in human blood and organs, and their causal relation with inflammation and reduced reproductive function have been studied. Reacting to such concerns, bans and restrictions are being implemented on single-use plastics and plastics microbeads. There is a clear demand for alternative materials to plastics, especially for their applications in food and personal care products, which will be the market we hope to feed through our project.

Novelty

  • As a novel production method of bio-based plastic-alternatives, biopolymers undergo Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation (LLPS) and structure rearrangement to become useful materials in both macro- and micro- scale.
  • The method is featured by preservation of biopolymers’ structure and properties, mild processing conditions without excessive heat input, and flexible sizes with customized
  • The method can be applicable to crude extraction of biopolymers from several sources of agricultural by-streams.
Project video
Project images
Extract valuable materials from agricultural by-streams
Production technology
About the Centre

Advanced Biomedical Instrumentation Centre aims to foster collaboration among top-notch engineers, scientists and clinicians in the Boston and Hong Kong to develop next-generation microfluidics and low-cost instrumentation technologies

Other projects
Exhibition Mainpage