Discoveries: Professor Utley experimenting on the breaking down of Lignin, 1987.
This photograph from 1987 shows Jim Utley (then Head of Chemistry, now Emeritus Professor of Organic Chemistry) at Queen Mary in the process of experimenting on the breaking down of Lignin.
Lignin is a waste product of paper, and is full of organic chemicals. However, it is complicated and difficult to break down into simpler chemicals which could be used in the manufacture of items such as detergent and adhesive. The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food funded the research and patented the process used.
While the UMIST used a biotechnical approach to their experiments on the same problem, Utley used an electrochemical process. He essentially used electricity to break down the lignin, stripping the electrons at a positively charged nicked plate. It is a clean process carried out at low temperatures and so does not damage the chemicals.