Dr Fanya Ismail, founder and CEO of chemical business SGMA, Sol-Gel Coatings and Advanced Materials, has created a coating for food and drink packaging that removes the need for plastic.
Ismail has created environmentally friendly coffee cups with smart coatings using the sol-gel process.
The sol-gel process is being used to make disposable coffee cups waterproof without the need to use plastic.
Ismail is now working with some of the largest coffee cup manufacturers in the world to implement this.
As part of its ‘Women in Innovation’ campaign, she was one of nine women to win funding from Innovate UK.
The Manufacturer reported if more women took part in entrepreneurial activity then over £180bn could be delivered to Britain’s economy.
The campaign began in 2016 when Innovate UK revealed that just one in seven applications for funding came from women.
“The manufacturing and chemical industries are male-dominated, when you go to any event, if you just look around you can count the number of women. Many entrepreneurs give up especially females because they don’t feel confident, for me my confidence came because of my expertise,” Ismail tells The Manufacturer.
“The sol-gel technology is well-known in both industry and academia, what makes our technology different is that we introduce materials at a molecular model which makes the end product unique, it has never been done before.”
