What they do:
Lux Biotech is a biotechnology company creating bacteria-based products with a vast range of applications, from agriculture to water treatment. The unique approach is carbon-negative and can help reduce prominent greenhouse gas emissions associated with sewerage and water treatment plants.
La Crème Patisserie is a manufacturer of handmade cakes, desserts and patisseries. The family-run business produces around 50,000 cakes a week supplying premium food service customers across the UK as well as retailing cakes to the public from its’ South Wales shops. The company has a well-rounded sustainability strategy which includes emissions reduction, building its social impact and preventing waste.
Challenge / Project:
Identifying supplies of nutrient-rich effluents and finding opportunities to valorise waste.
Solution / Approach:
ARCS connected Lux Biotech and La Crème Patisserie, facilitating a new industrial symbiosis partnership. La Crème uses a water-cutting machine to slice large batches of cake, creating nutrient-rich effluent in the process. The effluent would have needed to be treated before being disposed of but is now collected for use at Lux Biotech, where it is used to grow the bacteria used in their products.
Impact:
• New industrial symbiosis partnership with La Crème Patisserie
• La Crème has found a solution to manage a waste stream it would otherwise have to have paid to treat.
• Using waste as a starting point means Lux Biotech’s products are more cost-effective
Next Steps:
The companies are currently investing in modifying their processes to facilitate the partnership. Lux Biotech recently won nearly £50,000 in grant funding from Innovate UK and Welsh Government to help scale the business — Read more here.
