Photo: Carlos Cabrera Wageningen start-up Greencovery, together with the chair group Biobased Chemistry and Technology, has received a Take-off grant from NWO for research into the extraction of resources from residual waste flows.
With the 40,000-euro grant, entrepreneur Carlos Cabrera can perform a feasibility study into a combination of techniques to filter useful amino acids from rest streams. Cabrera wants to combine Greencovery’s method that was developed in Delft with a method of the Wageningen chair group, where he has a postdoc position. Cabrera expects that ‘the advantage of this combined method is that we can extract amino acids from complex mixtures in two steps and at low costs’.
With these filtered amino acids, the company intends to produce dietary supplements and chemicals. The feasibility study is meant to valorise the knowledge of the Biobased Chemistry and Technology group.
Cabrera is a Panama native, followed his master’s programme in Wageningen, obtained a PhD from Delft, and is now back in Wageningen for a postdoc. His company Greencovery, which is located in PlusUltra on campus, is supported by Startlife, which gave him a loan to set up his company last year. The company has since reached the second phase of Startlife’s Incubation programme, which advises on the business plan and the expansion of the company.
Hudson River
On this topic: another Wageningen start-up also took a new step. Last December, the Hudson River Biotechnology company announced it has rented its own 150-square-metre laboratory at the Business & Science Park in Wageningen. Until recently, this start-up was in Radix on campus. Hudson River Biotechnology improves crops through various methods, including Crispr technology.