Wednesday, 11 October 2006
Andrew Malcolm, PhD candidate and member of Pepfactants team
In a world first, researchers from the University of Queensland have developed a surfactant that can reversibly make and break emulsions and foams.
Working with clean as well as complex oil emulsions, Pepfactants® are a switchable surfactant, meaning that they can switch on the stability of an emulsion or foam, or switch it off.
Emulsions and foams are an integral part of everyday products like shaving cream or mayonnaise, and are essential to processes in mining, petrochemical, processed food, and cosmetics industries.
"Our Pepfactants outperform some commonly used surfactants when it comes to simply making stable emulsions and foams," said Mr Andrew Malcolm, PhD candidate and member of Pepfactants' management team.
"But Pepfactants have exciting new properties. They are the first truly reversible, switchable surfactants for both emulsions and foams".
"This means when you use our Pepfactants to make an emulsion or foam you can control when it will be stable and when it will be unstable."
The Pepfactants® team expect the unique switching properties of their peptide surfactants to bring new functionality to a range of products and industrial processes, especially where the biodegradability and safety of the product is valued.
"Pepfactants are a bio-surfactant. This means they are biologically produced, biodegradable and bio-compatible," according to Malcolm.
A finalist in UQ Business School's Enterprize competition, Mr Malcolm sees the $100 000 prize money going to recruiting a CEO for Pepfactants®, further developing its technology and business model, and taking significant steps towards securing industry relationships for the development of commercial products.
Other Enterprize finalists are GetCracking (concrete roads will be cheaper to build and last longer), Imprezzeo (image recognition software), BioShield (vaccine for a virus that has devastated the aquaculture industry globally), Ausonex (hearing test instrument that doubles speed of testing), Neutropharma (transfusible neutrophils), and LanguageMap (cost-efficient way of testing English language skills).
Pepfactants® received the "Emerging Technology Award" at the TechConnect Summit in Boston, USA in May 2006, and was awarded the "Knowledge Commercialisation Australia" prize for Queensland's Best Commercialisation Opportunity in June 2006.
"Pepfactants are the smart, green alternative to conventional surfactants."
To secure your place at Enterprize Pitch Day on Friday 13 October, contact Amy Hsylop a.hyslop@business.uq.edu.au
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