Adaptive processing of natural feedstocks

天然工厂/植物/能够合成非常复杂的功能分子，然后通常通过化学合成来模仿它们的功能（如药物，香料等）。这种合成并不总是可行的。在大多数情况下，由于目标分子上官能团的不稳定性质，所需的转化不能容易地实现。因此，使用天然原料作为独特的高价值分子库，并作为可以优化以生产更大量所需分子的工厂，是一种潜在的巨大回报，从而创造新市场的方法。这一途径还可以通过避免使用不可再生原料、完全利用植物生物质以及将植物原料利用与能源和肥料技术相结合来减少化学技术对环境的影响。该项目将开发新的适应性加工技术，解决导致整个过程可变性并连续影响初级工厂加工以及下游生物消化和分离过程的主要因素。

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.