Carbon-CPU

About

A lab to turn food waste into revenue

More than thirty per cent of all food produced globally is never eaten, the value of this wasted food being estimated at over one per cent of the total world gross domestic product (GDP). Carbon-CPU transforms food waste into high-value carboxylates, encouraging thoughtful food disposal and avoiding the soil, water and gas pollution caused by the landfill of food waste. The food is degraded by microbes into small molecules; these small organic compounds are then chain-elongated to form carboxylates that can be sold on and used in the production of a huge range of everyday items.

Sara Aleid

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
Sara Aleid is an entrepreneur and co-founder at Carbon-CPU, she an Environmental Science and Engineering MSc candidate at KAUST and had her bachelor’s degree in Life Sciences. She is a current researcher at the Water Desalination and Reuse Center, her work targets issues involved in the water-energy nexus. Her main challenge is on finding sustainable development and strategies for renewable resources in Saudi Arabia. Her role in Carbon-CPU aims to solve the issue of food security in KSA and around the world. She is very ambitious in achieving global environmental protection that will benefit both our environment and quality of life as well as all things alive and living here on our planet earth. Yara Aldrees is a co-founder of CARBON-CPU and a member in Faseel (NPO for environmental sustainability). A current graduate Environmental Science & Engineering student at King Abdullah University for Science and Technology, Yara’s aim is and has always been to serve her community through innovation and science. Her personal goals are in alignment with those of the Saudi 2030 vision, in that she strives to find a solution that supports the environment of Saudi Arabia and be a part of the reduction of food waste. CARBON-CPU is a great resource to utilize in that it will not only find a solution to our food waste problem, but also convert that food waste into resourceful animal food products. Bin Bian is currently focusing on transforming waste streams into valuable bioproducts through the chain-elongation processes. Is an expert in the chain-elongation technology for food waste treatment and fatty acid production at low cost, which has great potential in organic waste management and animal feed industry. Cabon CPU aims to change the way people treat organic wastes and the concept of how organic wastes could be valorized, to advance the recycling economy in the Middle East. Jiajie Xu is focusing on improving a bioprocess to produce and extract fatty acids (C4-C9 molecules) from organic-rich waste streams via chain elongation. This is an anaerobic fermentation technology that can produce a higher-value product from organic wastes than methane with anaerobic digestion. We are expert in designing and operating open-culture bioreactors. Our research also focuses on medium fatty acids converting into biofuel through Kolbe electrolysis. We apply our technologies in food waste valorization for environmental sustainability. CARBON-CPU has the world-leading technology to convert food waste into carboxylates with high value. Our team originated from KAUST PostUP/Taqadam project, an innovation program in KAUST for researchers to push their lab products to the real industrial application. We received the business training from KAUST innovation center, clarifying the doubts we have in terms of the problem we want to solve, the advantages we have and the team we need to build.more