City scientists find seaweed alternative to ‘forever plastic’
scientists who discovered they could use seaweed waste to produce a bio-degradable alternative to plastics are taking their technology to the next level.
Mark Dorris and Dominic O’Rourke founded Mercel – the latest company to spin out of Edinburgh Napier University – after realising they could make a high-value nanomaterial from brown seaweed extract, with zero waste.
They made the discovery during their research with the Advanced Materials group in the university’s School of Computing, Engineering & the Built Environment.
Having appointed Alastair Kennedy as Chief Commercial Officer, the three-strong firm is now planning to set up a new base for the company in Fife, to develop the product’s uses and license the technology for wider production.
They have already started testing it as a replacement for synthetic plastics in a range of practical uses, including as a binder for laundry products, a waterproof coating, and a delivery system for medical ingredients.
The material could offer a sustainable substitute to some widely used synthetic chemicals, such as per- and polyTwo fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) – known as ‘forever chemicals’ because of the difficulty and cost in disposing of them.
Mercel is now working with nine companies on 13 different projects to explore real-world applications.
The technology has been tested on sargassum seaweed – which has drawn worldwide headlines for washing ashore in huge quantities from the Atlantic Ocean.
By spinning out, Mercel joins an impressive list of companies that began life as projects at the university, including the likes of Cyacomb, ZoneFox, and Celtic Renewables. Last year Napier was named among the UK’s top ten universities for generating spin-out firms by one of Europe’s largest venture capital teams.
Mercel founder Mark Dorris said: “There are very few ‘eureka’ moments in science – but this was one of them.
“Coming from industry previously, we had no connections, no money, and no experience of seaweed. “At many points we were hanging on by our fingertips. We drunk the last chance saloon dry. We had job offers but decided ‘we can’t let this go’. “We immediately saw the potential of using brown seaweed cellulose from existing seaweed processing to produce nanocellulose.”