Adaptive processing of natural feedstocks

天然工厂/植物能够合成非常复杂的功能分子，然后经常通过化学合成来模仿它们的功能（作为药物，香料等）。这种综合并不总是可行的。在大多数情况下，由于感兴趣的分子上的官能团的不稳定性质，所需的转化不能轻易实现。因此，利用天然原料作为独特的高价值分子库，作为可以优化生产更多所需分子的工厂，是一种潜在的巨大回报，从而创造新市场的方法。这条路线还可能通过避免使用不可再生原料、充分利用植物生物量以及将植物原料利用与能源和肥料技术结合起来，减少化学技术对环境的影响。该项目将开发新的自适应加工技术，解决导致整个过程变异性的主要因素，并连续影响初级植物加工以及下游生物消化和分离过程。

Natural factories / plants / are capable of synthesising very complex functional molecules, which are then often mimicked for their function (as a drug, a fragrance, etc) through chemical synthesis. Such syntheses are not always feasible. In most cases the required transformations cannot be readily achieved due to the labile nature of the functional groups on the molecule of interest. Hence, using natural feedstocks as libraries of unique high-value molecules, and as factories that can be optimised to produce higher quantities of the desired molecules, is the approach that is potentially hugely rewarding, leading to creation of new markets. This route may also lead to the reduction of environmental impact of chemical technologies through avoiding the use of non-renewable feedstocks, complete utilisation of plant biomass and integrating plant feedstocks utilisation with energy and fertiliser technologies. This project will develop new adaptive processing technologies tackling main factors inducing variability in the overall process and consecutively affecting primary plant processing as well as downstream biodigestion and separation processes.