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Turning waste into value through chemistry

25 August 2025 | Story Martinette Brits | Photo Stephen Collett

Prof Elizabeth Erasmus during her inaugural lecture, Molecules of Change: Chemistry for a Better Tomorrow, on 20 August, highlighting how innovative chemistry can turn waste into value and promote sustainable solutions.

With climate change, resource scarcity, and environmental pollution among the most pressing challenges of our time, Prof Elizabeth (Lizette) Erasmus used her inaugural lecture on Wednesday, 20 August to show how chemistry can provide powerful, practical answers. In her lecture, Molecules of Change: Chemistry for a Better Tomorrow, she traced her journey from fundamental research to pioneering innovations that turn waste into value, protect ecosystems, and improve food security.

During her talk, Prof Erasmus – Researcher in the Department of Chemistry – recalled a moment in 2018 that reshaped her career trajectory. While preparing a Sasol research grant on copper oxide nanoparticles, an entrepreneur assisting with the proposal posed a deceptively simple challenge: “So what?” “Although upsetting at first, those two words completely reshaped my outlook,” she explained. “They inspired my journey from purely academic chemistry towards more applied, impactful research – with the mission of not only advancing science, but of also improving society and the environment.”

From fundamental science to global solutions

Prof Erasmus began her career in organometallic chemistry, preparing and characterising complex molecules to understand their reactivity and physical properties. Later, her focus shifted to heterogeneous catalysis, where she explored nanomaterials and surface chemistry.

Her research has since evolved towards developing sustainable technologies that address urgent global challenges. One example is agricultural innovation: using green solvents to extract cellulose from wattle tree bark to create biodegradable superabsorbent polymers. “Unlike the polyacrylates in baby diapers, these SAPs degrade into nutrients for soil microbes and plants,” she explained. “By loading them with fertiliser, we develop slow-release, water-retaining materials that improve agricultural sustainability.”

Other projects include producing biochar to restore degraded soils, creating natural growth enhancers such as wood vinegar, and designing an ‘ultimate fertiliser’ that combines these products for long-term soil health. Her group also works on environmental remediation, developing hydrophobic sponges to absorb oil spills, repurposing building waste to clean polluted water, and using innovative chemistry to convert carbon dioxide into valuable products.

“We are even looking at one of the fastest-growing waste streams: e-waste,” Prof Erasmus noted. “With more gold per ton than natural ore, e-waste represents both a challenge and an opportunity. By developing porous absorbent materials, we can selectively capture and reduce gold ions directly to metallic gold – recovering a precious resource from waste.”

She concluded by crediting her team and collaborators: “This, however, is only the tip of the iceberg. The bulk of the work lies beneath the surface, carried out by dedicated students, collaborators, mentors, colleagues, friends, and family. I owe them my deepest gratitude, for they are the ones who truly sustain this journey of transforming chemistry into solutions for a better world.”

About Prof Erasmus

Prof Elizabeth (Lizette) Erasmus obtained all her degrees at the University of the Free State: a BSc (2001), BSc Honours in Chemistry (2002), MSc in Chemistry (2003), and a PhD in Chemistry (2005). She has published more than 80 research papers, holds an H-index of 21, and has extensive experience in supervising MSc and PhD students.

After serving as a senior researcher at the CSIR, she returned to academia at the UFS, where her international collaborations in the Netherlands and at UC Davis broadened her focus from organometallic chemistry to heterogeneous catalysis and nanochemistry. Her expertise spans organometallic chemistry, electrochemistry, surface characterisation, and nanomaterials.

News Archive

UFS sets trend for higher education institutions

2005-09-21

The University of the Free State (UFS) offers more service-learning courses than any other higher education institution in the country and has the highest number of students enrolled for these service-learning courses.

This was the research findings on higher education institutions conducted between 2001 and 2004 by the Joint Education Trust (JET) into service-learning courses. These are courses which seek to integrate service to the community into the academic core of higher education institutions.

The results of this research indicated that the UFS is one of the few higher education institutions in South Africa that have made progress in integrating community engagement into the mainstream academy.

According to the findings 2 233 students at the UFS participated in service-learning courses supported by JET, while 858 students at the University of Transkei (UNITRA), 636 students at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and only 600 students at the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS) participated in service-learning courses.

In total there were 6 930 students participating in service learning courses supported by the JET at 10 institutions throughout the country.

The research also found that out of a total of 182 service-learning courses supported by JET countrywide, the UFS had the highest number of such courses at 42, followed by WITS with 28, the University of Kwazulu Natal with 26, UWC 24 and UNITRA with 22.

Nationally, most of the service-learning courses at higher education institutions are offered in the human sciences (62), followed by health sciences (37), education (26), agriculture (14), and economic sciences (11).

According to leading academics, service-learning is a credit-bearing, educational exercise in which students participate in an organised service activity that meets identified community needs and helps the student to gain a deeper understanding of course content and a sense of civic responsibility.

Reacting to the research findings, the Rector and Vice-chancellor of the UFS, Prof Frederick Fourie, said the university feels strongly that there should be integration of service-learning into the academic core of the institution.

“Through service-learning modules the UFS can give expression to its role of service to the community as an institution of higher learning, producing quality graduates who understand the communities in which they will have to function for the rest of their lives,” Prof Fourie said.

According to Mr Jo Lazarus, the project manager of the Community-Higher Education – Service Partnership (CHESP), which falls under the JET, a number of institutions have identified community engagement as a strategic priority and have allocated significant resources from their central budget towards its implementation.

Mr Lazarus said most students have an overwhelmingly positive attitude towards service learning.

“A large percentage of students surveyed indicated that their service-learning course helped to improve their relationship skills, leadership skills and project planning abilities. As significant is the fact that these courses also benefited them in terms of their awareness of cultural differences and opened their eyes about their own cultural stereotypes,” said Mr Lazarus.

“The key challenge still hampering the integration of service-learning as a core function of academic activity is that some institutions still see service-learning as an add-on, and nice-to-have activity,” he said.

According to Mr Lazarus higher education must demonstrate social responsibility and commitment to the common good by making available expertise and infrastructure for service-learning as a form of community engagement.

Media release
Issued by:  Lacea Loader
   Media Representative
   Tel: (051) 401-2584
   Cell: 083 645 2454
   E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
   20 September 2005

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