Starbons Ltd is proud to be a member of the Biovale family and has benefited from marketing support, featured at Biovale’s ‘Biobased chemicals showcase’ at the ChemUK Expo 2022 and connectivity via Biovale’s networks leading to speaking opportunities at events including the High Value Biorenewables (HVB) network conference.
Starbons under a microscope
Originally a University of York spin-out, now an independent entity, Starbons Ltd designs products made from biorenewable raw materials. A Starbon® material is like a solid sponge. The hole sizes and “stickiness” of the “sponge” allow different sized species to pass through or stick to the Starbon®. Varying the “stickiness” means that substances can be captured in many ways, so the company can design technical solutions tailored to the customer’s specific needs and end use application.
Market application examples are pharmaceutical active substance isolation, gas capture (including the green house gas CO2), gas monitoring equipment and precious metals recovery. Starbons’ aspiration is to become the leading disruptive technology and products company in the field of Specialty Separations and Gas Capture.
Production of Starbons material from alginic acid from seaweed
Both commercial and prototype Starbon® materials are contract manufactured for Starbons Ltd in the BDC’s facility, supplying early stage market needs and delivering proof of concept projects. The BDC has been instrumental in extensive process scale up and optimisation work to prepare Starbons for the next stage of their commercialisation strategy – to attract grants and investment in order to scale to multi 1000’s kgs per annum within the next 5 years.
Susan Brench, Starbons’ CEO states “Without the technical team and the assets housed at the BDC, Starbons would have struggled to scale from lab to pilot; there are very few such facilities in the UK. The BDC and Biovale have both been incredibly effective at signposting us not only to funding opportunities but also to like-minded organisations, including potential suppliers and customers”.
Recent collaborative research between Starbons and the BDC, funded by the THYME Project, was to scale up starch to increase the shelf life of food products. A short video of the project can be watched here.
For more information about Starbons Ltd take a look at this introductory animation or visit the website https://www.starbons.com/
