UW Tech turns food waste into fuel substitute

Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Vegetable food wasteWasted food can be affordably turned into a clean substitute for fossil fuels.

New technology developed by researchers at the University of Waterloo engineers natural fermentation to produce a biodegradable chemical that can be refined as a source of energy. 

The chemical could also be used to replace petroleum-based chemicals in a host of products including drugs and plastic packaging.

“People like me, environmental biotechnologists, look at food waste as a tremendous resource,” said Hyung-Sool Lee, a civil and environmental engineering professor at Waterloo. “With the right technologies, we can extract numerous useful chemicals and fuel from it.” click here to see the full story. Click here to see the CTV video.