Microbia project to recycle waste oil and diesel awarded £209k
17 December 2019
Professor John Ward of UCL Biochemical Engineering and Professor Helen Hailes of UCL Chemistry have won an award of £209,267 from Defence and Security Accelerator to develop a bacterial solution to waste oil on MOD land
![Professor John Ward at composting bin Professor John Ward at composting bin](https://www.ucl.ac.uk/biochemical-engineering/sites/biochemical_engineering/files/styles/large_image/public/john-ward-at-compost-800x5000.jpg?itok=F_b2icvh)
The 12-month project is titled: "New microbial consortia for breaking down MOD oil and diesel waste materials into useful end products." John and his team will develop and manipulate bacterial consortia to deal with the large amounts of waste fuel, oils, lubricants and other liquid chemicals on Ministry of Defence (MOD) permanent bases. The microbial consortia will be developed to convert the waste oils into reusable by-products such as the bioplastic PHA.