ADDING value to agricultural waste will be one of the major focuses at the new Adelaide Glycomics Centre, the first facility of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.
The centre, located at the University of Adelaide Waite campus, was launched by Science and Information minister Kyam Maher on Thursday and specialises in the analysis of complex carbohydrates.
Adelaide Glynomics director and Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Plant Cell Walls director Vincent Bulone said the agricultural implications could be vast.
“The one thing that is really hot in the pipeline at the moment is adding value to agricultural waste,” he said.
“We’re talking about the major crops we produce in Australia and our state – cereals, potatoes, mushrooms.
“Waste from agriculture at the moment is either burned to produce energy, used for compost or used for animal feed.
“There are still lots of nutritious elements we can extract from this waste and turn them into valuable compounds.”
Professor Bulone said agricultural waste could be converted into nutraceuticals – products derived from food waste which could supplement diets or treat and prevent disease.
“At the moment, the value of this waste is very low and we think we can turn this into large revenues quite quickly by making higher-valued products out of it instead of just using it for animal feed or burning it,” he said.
“It will help primary producers by adding value to their waste.”
Australia’s increasing population meant there was a demand for a strong agriculture sector and higher crop yields, which would in turn create more waste, according to Prof Bulone.
“If we can complete the loop by recycling and taking advantage of this waste for higher-valued products we will bring increasingly higher revenues to the economy,” he said.
Prof Bulone said the facility would also help build a better understanding of the complex carbohydrate structures of crops and plant biomass, which were poorly characterised.
The wine industry is also set to benefit from the research conducted at the glycomics centre, with increases in quality the main objective.
“Wine is a complex mixture of molecules and this is what makes each wine unique,” Prof Bulone said.
“Carbohydrates play an important role in that complex mixture, not only by interacting with aromatics that contribute to the flavour but also by contributing to the mouth feel and different aspects of wine quality.
“Understanding the composition and what controls quality through the carbohydrates we find in wine is very important.”
Instruments are operational in the glycomics laboratory and work will begin on Monday.
The centre’s development was made possible through a collaboration between the Univesity of Adelaide and Agilent Technologies.
Prof Bulone said the centre had already attracted numerous solicitations from international companies.