Stanislav Obruča: Throwing waste away is a very expensive thing

During the last decade, waste has begun to be considered both as a relevant raw material resource and as an object of serious research. Scientists from the Faculty of Chemistry at the BUT (Brno University of Technology) are also working on this. We talked to one of its designers, Stanislav Obruča, about the project, which does not yet exist.

The project focused at finding new ways to use waste is still going through the approval process and its authors will wait until the end of the year for the result of a tricky grant competition. Despite the real risk of failure, the project is an example of what excellent science should look like in the 21st century. Stanislav Obruča is still optimistic regardless of the result of the competition: “Thanks to the project, we were able to connect with scientists from the Czech Technical University and the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague, as well as across disciplines. The fact that we have got to know each other is the basis for something else to be created,” he believes in the possibilities of future cooperation. The large-scale project aims to appraise waste materials in ways that go beyond the scope of a single discipline or a single university. What unites the scientists involved is the idea that society needs to find alternatives to traditional non-renewable primary raw materials such as oil, natural gas, sand and limestone for many reasons. Resources have to be found elsewhere and what is more than enough and still available is waste.

“Every civilization reaches a point where it exhausts its resources and has to start doing much better with them. The time when we could throw away 60 percent of raw materials as waste is probably coming to an end. I like Karl May's books, for example, and there, when they killed the buffalo, they processed it whole. They couldn't throw half of it away because it didn't fit right. We are also getting to that stage where we will have to manage the resources we have much better. Generating waste is actually a very expensive thing to do,” Obruča explains the motivation of the scientists from BUT.

The use of waste is also a topic that has been a frequent target of excellent research at the BUT in the past, so there is much to build on. At the Faculty of Chemistry, this is mainly research focused on biotechnology and biodegradable materials. This area is also a specialisation of Stanislav Obruča. Since 2010 he has been part of Ivana Márová's team that developed the successful biotechnology Hydal. This is based on the use of waste fryer oil to feed bacteria, which then create the raw material for bioplastics. Another important research area where waste applications can be developed is inorganic building chemistry, which finds its application especially in the construction industry, thus connecting the Faculty of Chemistry with the Faculty of Civil Engineering. An example is the use of fly ash from incinerators for various construction applications.

Finding as many practical intersections as possible between these research areas, for example in the recovery of food waste on the one hand and the recovery of construction waste on the other, is one of the important project objectives. A historical example showing that such a link is possible is the production of paper, which generates waste that is used industrially in the production of building materials. The project also focuses on the use of CO2, which is generated in a number of production processes and can be seen as a waste of its kind. The project proponents offer scenarios that can use or capture the gas using biotechnology, chemical or material technologies. However, the project is not only about the development of individual technologies for waste treatment. The aim is to design and test complex technological scenarios that combine multiple technologies in multiple steps to enable a transition to a more efficient use of waste in line with the circular economy. It aims to extend the life cycle of products and minimise waste. “The plan is to explore different scenarios, test their various options and evaluate which of them are the best, also with regard to their operation in a real technical and economic context,” adds Stanislav Obruča.

It is important for the scientific excellence of the project that waste recovery scenarios are examined from different perspectives. This is also the reason why the project brought together different institutions and disciplines. Approaches and ways of thinking vary in different fields of chemistry, from inorganic chemistry with an emphasis on structural applications to classical analytical chemistry focused on the investigation of the composition of substances and mixtures to organic chemistry or biotechnology based on the chemical work of microorganisms. “Even though we are chemists and have more or less the same “background”, we often think about things differently, use different vocabulary or have a different perception of quantity, for example. What is a lot for me as a biotechnologist in many cases – i.e. a few grams of a product – is a homeopathic amount for my colleagues in the field of, for example, building chemistry,” Obruča gives an example.

In connection with disciplinary differences, Stanislav Obruča highlights interdisciplinary cooperation and mentions a problem that is far from being unique to science: “In fact, there are no scientific disciplines. There is only nature, which we have divided, because everything is so complex that one human mind cannot cover it. Unfortunately, disciplines sometimes become trenches, where scientists are convinced of the superiority of their field and their only truth. For this reason, it is crucial that research is multidisciplinary. Reality is always more complex, one person or discipline cannot fully grasp it and offer workable solutions to complex problems.“

In addition to the design of new technologies and their transfer into practice, the scientists also thought about the general public during the preparation of the project: “We would like to introduce the public to different ways of using waste through events such as the Night of Scientists or Chemistry Day, and at the same time explain that these are not technologies that will simply and painlessly save the world. For example, a recycled product can be more expensive than one made from virgin raw material. But we have no choice, because we have to prepare ourselves for the fact that we may not always have clean raw materials available as we would like for various reasons,” says Stanislav Obruča, describing another aspect of the project and at the same time he is mentioning an important lesson from the history of science and technology – every technology must be approached with enthusiasm, but also critically.

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