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Final mark awarded:_____
FACULTY OF COMPUTING,
ENGINEERING and SCIENCE

Assessment Cover Sheet and Feedback Form 2022/23

Module Code: Module Title: Module Lecturer:

RE4S012 Bioprocesses for a Circular Economy Prof. Sandra Esteves
Assessment Title and Tasks:
Assessment is made up of
Business case based capital funding application for a bioprocess
2 parts
facility for wastes or wastewaters
No. of pages submitted in total including this page: Word Count of submission
Completed by student (if applicable): Completed by
student
Date Set: Submission Date: Return Date:
28/09/2022 23-24/11/22 (times to be confirmed) (Pitch
presentation, individual max. 8 minutes long and be 5/12/2022
also submitted via Blackboard by 25/11/22 mid
night)

25/01/2023 (Capital bid proposal, individual 20/02/2023

submission via Blackboard by mid night)

Part A: Record of Submission (to be completed by Student)

Extenuating Circumstances
If there are any exceptional circumstances that may have affected your ability to undertake or
submit this assignment, make sure you contact the Advice Centre on your campus prior to your
submission deadline.
Fit to sit policy:
The University operates a fit to sit policy whereby you, in submitting or presenting yourself for an
assessment, are declaring that you are fit to sit the assessment. You cannot subsequently claim
that your performance in this assessment was affected by extenuating factors.
Plagiarism and Unfair Practice Declaration:
By submitting this assessment, you declare that it is your own work and that the sources of
information and material you have used (including the internet) have been fully identified and
properly acknowledged as required1. Additionally, the work presented has not been submitted
for any other assessment. You also understand that the Faculty reserves the right to investigate
allegations of plagiarism or unfair practice which, if proven, could result in a fail in this
assessment and may affect your progress.
Details of Submission:
Note that all work handed in after the submission date and within 5 working days will be capped
at 40%2. No marks will be awarded if the assessment is submitted after the late submission
date unless extenuating circumstances are applied for and accepted (Advice Centre to be
consulted).
Work should be submitted as detailed in your student handbook. You are responsible for
checking the method of submission.
Student Number:
You are required to acknowledge that
you have read the above statements by
writing your student number (s) in the
1
University Academic Integrity Regulations
2
Information on exclusions to this rule is available from Campus Advice Shops
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IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO KEEP A RECORD OF ALL WORK DDUS
SUBMITTED

Part B: Marking and Assessment

(to be completed by Module Lecturer)
This assignment will be marked out of 100%

The pitch presentation contributes to 30% of the total module marks.

The capital proposal contributes to 70% of the total module marks.

This assignment is bonded.

Assignment Title and Tasks:

Business Case Based Capital Funding Application for a Bioprocess Facility for Wastes or
Wastewaters
An international competition has just started, the purpose of which is to provide financial assistance
of up to 40% towards the capital costs (i.e. equipment and infrastructure) of a bioprocess(es) based
full scale plant, for the recovery of solid wastes or wastewaters in any country in the World. The
funding could contribute towards e.g. bioprocess(es), control and instrumentation equipment;
pasteurisation/sterilisation equipment; product processing or refining conditioning & storage
equipment; and also energy processing and utilisation processes as well as site infrastructure such
as concrete pads, storage areas, site access, weighbridge and buildings.

To be eligible to apply for support your project must: be a capital investment (operating costs are
not eligible for support) to create a new bioprocess facility; be installed and fully operational by 31
March 2024; use either proven technology in commercial operation elsewhere or emerging
biotechnologies which are still at pilot scale deployment. You are required to use municipal,
commercial, industrial or agricultural wastes or wastewaters as feedstock resources. You are
required to demonstrate that the project viability is dependent on this support; but that the plant will
be commercially sustainable in the medium and long term i.e. the cost model allows a reasonable
payback period.

A significant part of the assessment relates to the choice of biotechnology(ies) for the wastes types,
and specifically the integration of the bioprocess(es) with ancillary systems. The assessors will also
require environmental benefits/impacts of the project as well as the ability of the proposer to deliver
such a project within a short timescale where many legislative requirements are in place. Please
justify all your decisions and assumptions (and reference the sources of information) in terms of
selection of technology, waste types and quantities, start-up and operating procedures, monitoring
and control apparatus. The status on agreements or contracts for incoming wastes as well as for
use of end-products from the project need to be also included. Some costs analysis will need to be
included where capital costs and running costs are considered alongside potential revenue. The
legal framework regarding compliance needs to consider the UK situation, unless more rigorous
frameworks exist in the country where the full scale plant will be installed.

The assessment panel will make their decisions based on the information presented in your
application only, and those applications that fully meet the scope and most strongly meet the
evaluation criteria will be selected for funding support. It is important that your application is written
to address the requirements and scope of the programme and demonstrate how it meets the
following evaluation criteria:

a) Applicant’s ability to deliver the project within the timescale (e.g. track record, expertise,
partners in the project, ability to demonstrate the required stakeholders involvement and
present an appropriate Gant chart for the installation planning, construction and
commissioning of the plant)
b) Quality of arrangements for sourcing the input material (e.g. feedstock source, type,
analysis, contract arrangement, transport)
c) Quality of the design of the project facility (e.g. sizing of reactors / vessels based on
feedstock characteristics, retention time, organic loading rate, type and suitability of the
chosen biotechnology, typical operating conditions, monitoring and control strategies)
d) Quality of arrangements for the facility outputs (e.g. mass / volume of products produced,
their characteristics, storage, any further processing or refining, disposal / fate / markets,
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contract arrangements)
e) Financial robustness of the proposal (including expected payback) (e.g. summary of capital DDUS
costs, operating costs, income, and payback time or other measure of financial viability)
f) Regulatory framework and overall environmental impact of the new facility (e.g. summary
of environmental impacts during construction and operation, how these could be managed,
summary of overall environmental benefit of the scheme)

The pitch presentation is a session where slides can be presented individually. It is a session for
you to present the case for financial support by explaining briefly aspects a) to f). You must cover
the proposal sections briefly and visually and convince the assessment panel that they should
invest in your project. As a guide for 8 mins pitch, slides should be limited to 8-10. The assessment
panel and other candidates (i.e. your colleagues) will have the opportunity to ask a couple of
questions for approximate 2 mins.

Your capital funding application must be in writing and must be limited to a maximum of 4200
words and should not be longer than 10 x A4 pages in length (excluding appendices). The following
sections must be included in your proposal: Executive summary; Project Technical Description
(Facility, Inputs and Outputs); Project Management Information; Organisational Information;
Financial Information; and Regulatory and Environmental Information.

It is anticipated that in addition to the materials provided in the lectures, you will be required to
research much more widely available literature, including technical reports and academic/trade
publications. Reviewing a number of journal publications is certainly a requirement. Overall
technical references should be over 20.

Contact:
Please contact Prof. Sandra Esteves if you need further assistance and advice related to this
capital application and pitch presentation; Email: sandra.esteves@southwales.ac.uk

This assignment addresses the following learning outcome(s) of the module:

1. Demonstrate a sound knowledge of scientific and technical principles of bioprocesses that can
play a role in the circular economy
2. Critically review the factors that influence process selection, design and operation for each
bioconversion or bio-recovery process
3. Ability to specify an effective process monitoring regime
4. Evaluate the needs to integrate one process with other complimentary ones in order to maximise
efficiencies and quality outputs
5. Critically evaluate the environmental and economic benefits and impacts of utilising each
bioprocess in terms of treatment/recovery efficiency, energy savings or net energy yield as well
as production of other products
Grading Criteria:

Marking Scheme for Capital Funding Proposal Marks Marks Awarded

Available
Marking Scheme for Pitch presentation:
Quality of pitch structure and presentation 25
Relevance of content 25
Clarity in the presentation and ability of convey the 25
message within the time allocated
Ability to answer questions 25

Ability to justify the following:

Applicant’s ability to deliver the project within the 8
timescale
Quality of arrangements for sourcing the input material 15
Quality of the design of the project facility 22
Quality of arrangements for the facility outputs 15
Financial robustness of the proposal 12
Overall environmental impact of the new facility 10
Quality of the executive summary 6
Proposal structure and presentation quality 6
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Quality of referencing 6 DDUS

Feedback/feed-forward (linked to assessment criteria):

 Areas where you have done well:

 Feedback from this assessment to help you to improve future assessments:

 Other comments

Mark: Marker’s Signature: Date:

Work on this module has been marked, double marked/moderated in

line with USW procedures.

Provisional mark only: subject to change and/or confirmation by the Assessment

Board
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Part C: Reflections on Assessment
(to be completed by student – optional)
Use of previous feedback:

In this assessment, I have taken/took note of the following points in feedback on

previous work:

Please indicate which of the following you feel/felt applies/applied to your

submitted work
 A reasonable attempt. I could have developed some of the
sections further.
 A good attempt, displaying my understanding and learning, with
analysis in some parts.
 A very good attempt. The work demonstrates my clear
understanding of the learning supported by relevant literature and scholarly
work with good analysis and evaluation.
 An excellent attempt, with clear application of literature and
scholarly work, demonstrating significant analysis and evaluation.

What I found most

difficult about this
assessment:

The areas where I

would value/would
have valued feedback: