UK biofuel research hub launched

A new £3.5 million UK research centre is hoping to tackle some of the problems preventing bioenergy generation becoming more widespread.

The Supergen Bioenergy Hub brings together six universities and ten industrial partners to share expertise on how biomass plants can be better used and constructed to help cut carbon dioxide emissions.

Biomass processes utilise energy crops, waste wood, wood chippings and forestry wood as a source of fuel.

This fuel is fed into a gasification process which produces a gas which is fed into engines that produce a clean form of renewable energy.

Biomass accounts for nearly half the renewable electricity generation in the UK with much of that in the form of landfill gas.

The new hub will address ten research projects ranging from turning biomass into transport fuels to capturing carbon dioxide from burning biomass feedstocks.

Work starts on August 1st and will be led by Dr Patricia Thornley of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of Manchester.

Minister for universities and science David Willetts said: "Research and innovation play a vital role in our transition to a low carbon economy. The Supergen Bioenergy Hub will bring together leading academic and industrial partners to look at this pressing challenge and develop practical solutions for a greener future."

Two of the projects will look at reducing emissions from biomass combustion.

One will involve practical measurement work on real boilers, trying to identify cost effective methods of reducing particulates and other atmospheric pollutants at small scale.

A fundamental scientific study will also focus on identifying key markers for emissions from fuel analyses.

Dr Thornley said: "The Supergen Bioenergy Hub is going to really drill into a whole host of bioenergy prospects.

"It is not just going to look at what will work practically, in terms of generating power, but also the impact of such technologies. This is vitally important; we have to look at the sustainability of these new avenues."