Ripcell
Ripcell is a young company based in Aberdeen, producing green chemicals from waste streams in a very Scottish industry, whisky.
Scottish whisky is famous across the world, and love it or loathe it, the industry is currently booming. It is responsible for 22% of all UK food and drink exports, with an estimated 43 bottles exported every second. It has been generated for centuries, with the oldest known recipe dating back to 1494, and although it only uses three ingredients (water, yeast and cereals) it does generate large volumes of waste. For every 1 L of whisky produced, 10 L of waste water is generated. Part of this waste water is known as pot ale, and requires special processing to be disposed of. Its alcohol content is too low to be worthwhile extracting, but its acidic nature means it cannot simply be discharged into the environment. An estimated 2.6 billion litres of pot ale must be processed each year in Scotland, and Ripcell have the solution.
Using a combination of membrane extraction and distillation Ripcell have international PCT patents pending in Europe, USA and the Caribbean for their process to convert pot ale into bio acids. Firstly they filter the solution and distillation of the liquid is undertaken to concentrate bio-acetic acid from water, which can then be isolated as pure acetic acid. The water can now be reused or pumped into the environment, with the pot ale problem solved! The suspended and dissolved solid residues can be used as animal feed or in anaerobic digestors to produce biogas. Ripcell have agreements in place with biogas producers in a cross-sector alliance to ensure that nothing from their process is wasted.
Acetic acid is a chemical used in many different sectors, including on your fish and chips as it is a major component of vinegar. It is mainly produced using petrochemicals in a highly polluting method, with 1 kg of acetic acid produced generating 1.9 kg of greenhouse gases. Ripcell’s method is the opposite, it is actually carbon negative, confirmed through their LCA. For every 1 kg of acetic acid made, they remove 1.59 kg of greenhouse gas emissions. These exceptional statistics are achieved without growing specialty crops, which many green chemicals require, with Ripcell exploiting existing unused waste streams. In Scotland alone they predict to remove 34,000 MT of greenhouse gas emissions per year, if their systems are widely adopted.
Beyond being carbon negative, their acetic acid is of exceptional purity, which is used for higher grade applications. Because of their high grade acetic acid, Ripcell are targeting specialty industries including the pharmaceutical sector, where high purity acetic acid is essential. In pharmaceuticals high purity acetic acid is used as an ingredient in vaccines (including COVID-19 vaccines) and antibiotics. They have also investigated their acetic acid successfully in Electric Vehicle (EV) battery recycling, providing an effective avenue to recover lithium, cobalt and nickel. With an expanding EV space and aging batteries this will be an essential and huge future market.
The company was founded by CTO Dr Eve Wildman in 2021, with Eve stepping back from her lecturing at the University of Aberdeen to make Ripcell a success. They have shown considerable progress despite being so young, with their pilot stage (processing 1,000 L/hour) successfully completed earlier this year. This pilot project was established alongside whisky giants Chivas Brothers and Suntory Global Spirits. The company is hoping to work alongside more of the 140 distilleries in Scotland, establishing their membrane technology on site, removing solids, with the water processed off site at a central hub to produce the acetic acid. Ripcell still have close ties to the University of Aberdeen, with an Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre grant between the two recently announced exploring their technology. The results from which highlighted another bio-chemical for extraction and recovery using RIPCELL’s system, in the form of bio-lactic acid. They have also received funding from The Scottish Government’s “Just Transition Fund” which helped fund their pilot site.
Ripcell use off the shelf equipment for their process, allowing quick adoption and scaling, with an estimated 3 – 6 months to implement their systems. They are looking for £3M to scale their technology and process even more pot ale, with a huge supply ready to exploit, with existing agreements in place. Beyond whisky, their process can work with many dark spirits, with initial successes with rum producers.
The company is looking for commercial partners, additional whisky distilleries or other dark spirit producers, partners who can exploit their waste solids such as biogas companies, companies who can assist with chemical production and also for the distribution of their acetic acid.
If you are interested in partnering with Ripcell or would just like further information please reach out by email to info@ripcell.co. Please also check out the Ripcell website.
We are excited to see how they progress in Scotland and beyond, with the US, India and Japan the next great whisky nations they want to conquer.
Images courtesy of Ripcell Limited and Pexels