Kit Wayne Chew

The need for alternative nutritional supplements that do not rely on food crops is a global challenge as the increase in population has created the issue of food security. Discovering a potential source of valuable bioproducts and effectively extracting these bioproducts becomes a vital part to tackle this issue.

Since 2016, Kit Wayne Chew has been working on promising algae and microalgae technologies to generate biomolecules that can benefit the nation and community. He has applied the use of food waste compost as an organic medium for microalgae cultivation to substitute a portion of the inorganic medium and it has shown to produce better productivity and higher biochemical content in the biomass.

Chew has developed integrated bio separation processes to produce valuable biomolecules using novel extraction techniques. This technology is known as Liquid Biphasic/Triphasic System, which uses two immiscible phases to separate and purify desired compounds. It has been proven to yield high recovery and purity of functional compounds from various sources and has the potential for applications in the biopharmaceutical and cosmeceutical industries.

Overall, Chew’s research emphasizes the potential of renewable sources management and development of cost-effective and greener downstream processing.