69传媒

When lockdown started, Dr Aled Roberts headed to his cellar.

Limited to ingredients he could find in his house 鈥� baking soda, brick dust, protein powder, and the odd leaf 鈥� he picked up a coffee grinder, his microwave, and his KitchenAid mixer and started to turn his basement into a basic laboratory.

鈥淚 called it the Cellar of Materials Discovery. I remember thinking that the main benefit of this approach would be that the products I developed would automatically be low cost and commercially feasible, because they would only depend on cheap, everyday materials.鈥�

So, while the rest of us were binge-watching TV series, or learning to hate sourdough, Aled was making an exciting breakthrough. He discovered that the ingredients he was working with held promise; mixed together, they created a strong, concrete-like substance that could make a big difference to the polluting concrete and ceramics industries. Soon after, during another lockdown in January 2021, he founded DeakinBio.

Starting up the production line

After years of publishing papers and filing patents, the Manchester-based researcher was becoming impatient with the lack of industrial uptake of his inventions. So, he took DeakinBio on a journey from the (MIB), through the (GEIC) 鈥� where he benefitted from the industry expertise of the GEIC team 鈥� to eventually secure his own workshop in a small railway arch just behind Piccadilly train station. This was the chance Aled was waiting for, a chance to make a difference.

DeakinBio鈥檚 latest invention is the material Eralith. Eralith is a green alternative to the tiles you usually see in kitchens and bathrooms. It has a recycled content of over 98% and is made almost entirely from recycled plaster, which is combined with other bio-based ingredients (such as byproducts from the brewing industry) to make a durable product with a fraction of the environmental impact of traditional tiles.

Ceramic tiles have a huge carbon footprint at over 16 kg CO₂ per square meter. If the world is serious about meeting its emissions reduction targets, and mitigating the worst effects of climate change, then finding low-carbon alternatives to conventional construction materials will have to be part of the solution. Eralith promises just that, with tiles made from the material having a 94% lower CO₂ footprint.

What鈥檚 more, Eralith does not rely on high-energy kiln firing to produce a usable material. It can simply be baked at the normal temperatures you鈥檇 use in your own oven for a Friday-night pizza.

Looking back in time

Much of Aled鈥檚 work is inspired by history, how humans have used the natural materials around them to create products, tools, and other daily commodities from what nature provides. By emulating natural materials like seashells, tooth enamel, and pearls, Aled is able to construct his materials in minutes, rather than having to grow them more gradually, combining waste mineral powders with bio-based binders to create bioinspired composites.

But of course, this wasn鈥檛 just a history lesson for Aled. As a Research Fellow in the Future Biomanufacturing Research Hub at the 69传媒Institute of Biotechnology (MIB), when he embarked upon this journey, Aled already had years of biomaterial development experience behind him. He鈥檇 previously been involved in developing synthetic biomaterials from spider silk, alongside protein-based bio-adhesives and bio-composites 鈥� experience he was determined to put to good use.

Aled made international headlines in 2021 with his first material, AstroCrete, where he experimented with combining a protein from human blood with a compound from urine, sweat or tears, to glue together simulated moon or Mars soil (regolith). This produced a material as strong than ordinary concrete with a compressive strength as high as 25 Megapascals (MPa) 鈥� about the same as the 20鈥�32 MPa seen in ordinary concrete 鈥� which has the potential to be used in future space colonisation missions.

Out of the kiln and into the oven?

With the cement and concrete industries contributing 8% of the global CO₂ emissions, it鈥檚 easy to understand why Aled鈥檚 materials have created such excitement.

But while his goals are noble, his journey out of the Cellar of Materials Discovery hasn鈥檛 been easy. As a new start-up, moving away from academia and navigating the business world was no mean feat. Aled had to learn the tricks of the trade while simultaneously developing his material. But, with the launch of the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Catalyst (IBIC) there will be more ways for DeakinBio to benefit from the growing industrial biotechnology ecosystem in the north-west.

鈥淚鈥檓 a start-up, rather than a spinout, which means I've done most of the business stuff solo. This has been hard, but it has given me a lot of creative freedom which has been fun.鈥� says Aled. 鈥渨hile I didn't get to benefit from some of the support offered to spinouts, I did benefit from starting within the University's ecosystem. Developing my ideas in an international hub such as the MIB and then taking up labspace in the GEIC were both opportunities that gave me the confidence to take my product out into the world.鈥�

Now, Aled and his team are looking forward to a brighter world of carbon-reduced construction. 鈥淲e鈥檙e hoping to close our first round of pre-seed funding in the next few weeks, which will give us funds to continue development and scale-up our technology. Our aim is for these tiles to become a small piece in the puzzle towards solving this huge global challenge.鈥� And with a new business partner onboard who can help with the paperwork Aled can get back to what he does best, tinkering in his much larger cellar (railway arch), to create the next generation of bioinspired material products.

For Dr Roberts, what began in a 69传媒basement with baking soda and a dream of making positive changes, may soon lead to a more environmentally-friendly future for humanity, and perhaps even to construction projects far beyond the boundaires of our planet.