At a chitosan production plant in Scotland, UK, Belzona 1391T — a high-performance, anti-corrosion coating developed by Belzona UK (Deeside, United Kingdom) — was used to coat the internal lining of three tanks, protecting them against aggressive, acidic substances for the long term. Given the important role the tanks play in the process of turning large amounts of shellfish byproduct into the biopolymer chitosan, it was imperative that these assets were safeguarded against future damage with the use of a high-performance coating from Belzona UK, which provides polymeric epoxy repair mortars and high-performance coatings to commercial and industrial facilities within the UK.
CuanTec (Glenrothes, Scotland, United Kingdom), a bioscience company that produces chitosan from natural, sustainable sources such as crustacean shell, has created a circular economic business model designed to mitigate the carbon footprint created from the unnecessary disposal of unused shell within the shellfish industry and converting it into valuable chitosan products.
Indeed, the carbon footprint of food waste is staggering. According to data from the UN, food waste contributes to 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. This means that if food waste was a country, it would be the third-largest emitting country in the world.
At COP28, negotiators from 200 parties on the science from the International Panel on Climate Change that global greenhouse gas emissions need to “be reduced by 43% by 2030” in order to limit warming to 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) by 2050, in line with the Paris Agreement. With this in mind, circular business models such as those offered by CuanTec play an important role in mitigating carbon footprints and limiting global warming.
Considering the important role businesses such as CuanTec play in this decarbonization and upcycling journey, it is absolutely fundamental that key assets within these types of businesses — such as machinery, equipment, buildings, and structures — are safeguarded to an excellent standard. Otherwise, damage and wear can jeopardize the integrity of assets, thereby undermining the environmental benefits these types of business models offer.
For example, the carbon footprint of steel is phenomenal: for every ton of steel produced, nearly double the amount of carbon dioxide is released back into the atmosphere. Therefore, if a steel asset becomes damaged, this can only lead to costly replacement fees, but this process can incur a heavy carbon footprint as well.
As such, numerous industries invest in industrial repair composites and high-performance coatings in order to bypass this replacement process. In this way, polymeric technology mirrors the circular economic model of businesses like CuanTec, as this technology can repair, protect, and even intrinsically improve assets that would otherwise be decommissioned and sent to landfill. Thus, it could be argued that polymeric technology has a critical part to play in the decarbonization of multiple sectors, thereby supporting a net zero by 2050 pathway.
CuanTec wanted to deploy three steel tanks in their process of turning shellfish shell into high-quality, traceable chitosan products, made to the exacting technical specifications of their customers. The tanks had already been in use elsewhere, but were otherwise still in good condition. In order to ensure the tanks were capable of withstanding the harsh chemicals they would come in contact with, the customer decided to invest in some polymeric technology to protect them.
Following an inspection from Clive Leadbitter, senior field sales engineer at Belzona UK, the high-performance coating Belzona 1391T was specified. As this system is capable of protecting assets against corrosion in extremely aggressive and acidic environments, this was the ideal solution for the steel substrate for this specific application.
In addition, as Belzona 1391T can be applied in situ without the need for hot work, this would ensure that the application was carried out as quickly as possible, while minimizing the health and safety risks that can arise when hot work is involved.
Belzona 1391T has undergone direct food contact from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA results can be found here.
Commenting on the application procedure, Leadbitter says the following: “Surface preparation was carried out by grit-blasting. Following this, using a stiff-bristled brush, two coats of Belzona 1391T were applied at a thickness of 450 µm (17.72 mils) per coat. Once the application had cured within the space of 24 hours, the application was complete.”
Considering the important role businesses like CuanTec play in carbon mitigation, it is absolutely critical that key assets are protected for the long term against damage such as erosion and corrosion. As such, polymeric technology plays an important role in safeguarding these assets, and therefore contributing to the next zero by 2050 pathway.
For more information on Belzona 1391T, visit www.belzona.co.uk.
NOTE: Chloe Hirst, senior copywriter at Belzona, wrote the case study article upon which this article is based. She can be reached at chirst@belzona.com.