Research Highlights Bernal Institute secured €2.5m in European Research Council funding
‘By making simple changes, we can have a positive impact on climate change’ Professor JJ Leahy JJ Leahy, associate professor in UL’s Department of Chemical Sciences and a member of the Bernal Institute, is the energy and transport expert for the RTE TV Series ‘What Planet Are You On’, which focuses on getting households to take part in the fight against Bernal Chair in Pharmaceutical Powder Engineering, Professor Gavin Walker
climate change by reducing their carbon footprint. Professor Leahy has a strong background in circular bioeconomy and applied biofuels research;
Bernal Chair in Crystal Engineering, Professor Michael Zaworotko
he is associated with MaREI – the SFI Research Bernal Chair of Pharmaceutical Powder Engineering
Centre for Energy, Climate and Marine - and
and Co-Director of SSPC, Professor Gavin Walker,
SFI’s Bioeconomy centre. This collaboration with
In March 2020 Bernal Chair in Crystal Engineering
will receive €1.9m to develop a national advanced
industry and commitment to reducing our carbon
Michael Zaworotko was awarded almost €2.5m in
drug product manufacturing facility to facilitate
footprint has led to two start-up biofuel companies
ERC Advanced Grant funding. University of Limerick
industrial collaboration and support SSPC research
as well as currently leading two EU projects on the
received two awards of €2.5m each, these are the first
projects with industrial and academic partners.
Circular Bioeconomy, REFLOW and BIOWILL.
ERC Advanced Grants to be hosted at the University.
Professor Walker will lead the team helping to bridge
In total €450 million was awarded for long-term
the challenging engineering and scientific gap for
REFLOW involves academic and industrial
frontier research to 185 researchers by the ERC, the
process scale-up from lab to manufacturing.
organisations in seven countries, focusing
premiere European funding organisation, as part of the
on the recycling of phosphorous from the
EU research and innovation programme Horizon 2020.
“The move towards continuous manufacturing
wastewater solids in dairy factories and using
will be the next major innovation for the
it as a CE marked fertilizer components.
Professor Michael Zaworotko, Bernal Chair of
pharmaceutical industry and it’s essential that
Crystal Engineering and Science Foundation Ireland
the Irish pharmaceutical manufacturing industry
The BIOWILL project aims to be a flagship for rural
Research Professor at University of Limerick’s
move towards continuous processing to remain
Ireland through a zero-waste biorefinery utilising all
globally competitive.” said Professor Walker.
parts of willow trees to produce high to medium based
Bernal Institute, was awarded almost €2.5m for
“These processes collectively use around 20%
his project ‘SYNSORB – SYNergistic SORBents’.
of global energy supplies and demand for water
Professor Zaworotko, said his project “will address the
and industrial commodities continues to grow. Our
“The implementation of continuous pharmaceutical
form of biomethane production and natural fertilisers.
high energy footprint of gas and vapour purification by
goal is to discover and develop new sorbents that
processes is an opportunity to substantially
BioWILL was awarded €909,057 from Interreg
single-step purification processes that involve the use
reduce the energy footprint of these processes by
reduce costs, reduce manufacturing times and
North-West Europe Programme, the project consists
of a new generation of solid materials called sorbents.
50-90%, thereby significantly reducing the energy
bring medicines quickly to market, improve
of 10 partners in four countries across Europe.
and, in turn, carbon footprint of these processes.”
product defects, and encourage innovation by
“These sorbents act like sponges for impurities
biochemicals/materials and renewable energy in the
an integrated manufacturing approach.”
by capturing them spontaneously and releasing
ERC Advanced Grants support established,
them upon mild heating.
leading principal investigators that want long-
“This research infrastructure, will build on
term funding to pursue a ground-breaking, high-
the University of Limerick’s reputation of
“The most important vapour is water vapour. Water
risk project. Advanced Grants may be awarded
internationally leading research in pharmaceutical
vapour is everywhere in the atmosphere, even in the
up to €2.5 million for a period of 5 years.
manufacturing at the Bernal Institute.”
Professor JJ Leahy
most arid regions, but harvesting pure water from The new Advanced Drug Product Manufacturing
water vapour using existing desiccants uses so much
Advanced Drug Product Manufacturing Facility to be developed at Bernal Institute
Facility will deliver a suite of next generation process
“Gases such as CO2 and acetylene are impurities in
SSPC, the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI)
environment; an addition to SSPC’s significant
commodity production and must be removed using
Research Centre for Pharmaceuticals, hosted
capability in upstream continuous processing for
processes that typically involve chemical reactions.
at the Bernal Institute, will soon have access
active pharmaceutical ingredient production.
energy that it is not commercially viable despite the water stresses faced by much of humanity.
equipment to foster industrial collaboration on drug product manufacturing within the academic
to a suite expanding the research capabilities at UL through SFI Infrastructure Awards. 42
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