UK biofuels research gains "biggest ever public investment"
Wednesday 28 January 2009
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| Research within the new £27m programme will include work on different energy crops at Harpenden-based Rothamsted Research |
Ministers launched a new £27 million research centre for bioenergy yesterday, with the aim of working to replace petrol in the nation's cars with more sustainable biofuels.
The funding for the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Sustainable Bioenergy Centre has been described as the "biggest ever" public investment in bioenergy research in the UK.
It will support research into producing biofuels from non-food energy crops like willow and miscanthus as well as by-products from food crops like straw and waste materials from farms or industry.
Work will include development of better crops and more efficient cultivation methods to improve crop yields, along with analysis of the life cycles of potential bioenergy sources.
The initiative came after new figures published earlier this month continued concerns about the sustainability of biofuels used in UK transport (see this New Energy Focus story).
The new research centre's activities will be spread over different research "hubs" at the universities of Cambridge, Dundee, Nottingham and York and at Rothamsted Research in Harpenden, Hertfordshire.
A further seven universities and institutes, along with 15 industry partners, are involved in the research work.
Research programmes
Six programmes will take place through the new centre:
- Cell wall lignin programme - Aiming to alter the properties of lignin in barley to make energy-rich sugars in the crop easier to access, without affecting the quality of the crop. (University of Dundee, with the University of York, SCRI and RERAD);
- Cell wall sugars programme - Developing ways to improve plants and enzymes to increase the amount of sugar that can be extracted from biomass for conversion to biofuels (University of Cambridge, with Newcastle University and Novozymes).
- Lignocellulosic conversion to bioethanol programme - Using agricultural and wood industry wastes to produce biofuels by fermentation. (University of Nottingham, University of Surrey and a number of industry partners).
- Marine wood borer enzyme discovery programme - looking into the use of marine wood borers, sometimes known as "shipworms", that consume wood and have enzymes in their digestive systems that could break wood down into simple sugars suitable for biofuel production (University of York, University of Portsmouth, and Syngenta Biomass Traits Group).
- Perennial bioenergy crops programme - Work to improve the yields of fast-growing trees and grasses for biofuel production without increasing use of fertilisers, using the National Willows Collection (Rothamsted Research, with IBERS, Imperial College London, University of Cambridge and Ceres).
- Second generation sustainable bacterial biofuels programme - Aiming to improve the efficiency of biobutanol production by certain microbes by developing new bacterial strains (University of Nottingham with Newcastle University and TMO Renewables).
Jobs
Launching the centre yesterday, the government's minister for science and innovation, Lord Drayson, said the centre was "exactly the sort of initiative this country needs" to help replace fossil fuels with biofuels, creating "green collar jobs" along the way.
Working closely with industrial partners the centre's scientists will be able to quickly translate their progress into practical solutions.
BBSRC chief executive Prof Douglas Kell said the centre would draw together "world-beating" scientists to help develop technology and understanding to support the bioenergy sector.
"By working closely with industrial partners the centre's scientists will be able to quickly translate their progress into practical solutions to all our benefit," Prof Kell said.
Dr Richard Flavell, chief scientific officer at bioenergy crop developer Ceres Inc, which is taking part in the perennial bioenergy crops programme, said bringing together public and industrial resources would "cut years off introduction timelines" for new bioenergy crops.
"The UK bioenergy industry is ready to move forward, from making individual technologies work on a small-scale to putting together a sustainable, full-scale production and delivery chain," he said.
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