{"id":28749,"date":"2015-09-23T07:28:23","date_gmt":"2015-09-23T05:28:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=28749"},"modified":"2015-09-21T16:29:15","modified_gmt":"2015-09-21T14:29:15","slug":"dft-awards-25m-to-develop-advanced-biofuels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/dft-awards-25m-to-develop-advanced-biofuels\/","title":{"rendered":"DfT awards \u00a325m to develop advanced biofuels"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Three companies have been awarded a share of a \u00a325 million fund to develop low emission biofuels and boost local industry, Transport Minister Andrew Jones announced on 7 September.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3>Feedstocks Biofuels Biorefining<\/h3>\n<p>The Government announced this week that three companies have been awarded a share of its \u00a325 million Advanced Biofuels Demonstration competition, which was launched in December 2014 with the aim of developing fuels from waste products to power cars and lorries.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Department for Transport (DfT), the \u00a325 million funding will enable the three businesses to invest in new premises and technology to help generate more than 5,000 new jobs by 2030, open-up international markets and promote the renewable energy sector.<\/p>\n<p>The winning schemes are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Celtic Renewables, based in Edinburgh, has been awarded \u00a311 million to fund a new plant to make biofuels from Scotch whisky by-products, with plans to open a further 3 commercial plants across Scotland in the future<\/li>\n<li>Advanced Plasma Power, in Swindon, will receive \u00a311 million to help develop biofuels from ordinary household waste<\/li>\n<li>Nova Pangaea Technologies Ltd, based in Tees Valley, will receive \u00a33 million to help make biofuels from forestry waste.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Whiskey to biofuels<\/h3>\n<p>Celtic Renewables is working towards the production of sustainable biobutanol from whisky by-products as a direct replacement for petrol. Scotland\u2019s \u00a34-billion malt whisky industry produces annually two billion litres of liquid effluent and 750,000 tonnes of barley residue.<\/p>\n<p>The company\u2019s innovative technology not only provides a sustainable disposal route for these by-products, but also integrates renewable energy production with environmental sustainability and carbon reduction.<\/p>\n<h3>Assisted by NNFCC<\/h3>\n<p>Celtic Renewables was assisted by NNFCC in establishing its successful partnership with the flagship EU testing facility Bio-Base Europe Pilot Plant (BBEPP) in Belgium last year. Celtic Renewables was the first company to trial biobutanol technology at the demonstrator pilot facility in Ghent, and also the first Scottish company to sign an agreement with BBEPP.<\/p>\n<p>The partnership was enabled with funding from a \u20ac10,000 \u2018Innovation coupon\u2019 from the European Commission Interreg North West Europe project Bio Base NWE, an NNFCC-supported project which aims to develop the biobased economy in North West Europe.<\/p>\n<p>The company will use its \u00a311m DfT funding to build a biofuel facility that will be operational by December 2018, producing at least 1million litres of biofuel, capable of powering cars, every year.<\/p>\n<p>Professor Martin Tangney, the company\u2019s founder and President, said he was delighted with the award which would allow it to create Europe\u2019s first facility for acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation for 50 years.<\/p>\n<p>Professor Tangney said: \u201cOur aim is to reintroduce that process but in a modern context which allows us to use the leftovers from the whisky industry to create a fuel source that contributes to the low carbon future we all want.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u201cWe are committed to developing a new industry right here in the UK that will be worth more than \u00a3100million-a-year and it starts here.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have already attracted investment and partners in the private sector and this funding announced today will allow us to scale-up to industrial production.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur next step is to open a demonstration facility and we are targeting a location in or near Grangemouth which is an area that\u2019s strategically right for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Replacing fossil fuels<\/h3>\n<p>Nova Pangea Technologies (NPT) received a \u00a33m share of the grant to fund the demonstration of its low cost route to cellulosic sugars and on to ethanol for biofuels at significant scale. The process is unique in being continuous and, importantly, it is scalable to oil industry volumes.In due course it should provide a sustainable source for liquid transportation fuels and indeed chemicals, using a wide variety of biomass feedstocks and carries the prospect of replacing fossil fuels for these purposes.<\/p>\n<p>The NPT technology uses a patented series of cost efficient and scalable physical and thermochemical processes to convert waste wood and forestry surplus into sugars which are turned into ethanol by commercial operators and then blended with petrol to supply forecourt fuel to consumers.<\/p>\n<p>External consultants have forecast ethanol produced from UK forestry residues via NPT\u2019s biomass fractionation process would have a GHG saving in excess of 95%.<\/p>\n<p>NPT Chairman Barry Hedley said that the funding will assist the company as they \u201ccontinue to develop the Refnova(TM) process.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He added: \u00a0\u201cIt is our expectation that this UK biofuel technology will be licensed to biomass owners and processors across the globe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The technology is currently being developed through alliances with a number of academic and technical institutes in the UK and across the EU.<\/p>\n<h3>Turning waste into fuel<\/h3>\n<p>All the successful projects will use waste products which would otherwise be disposed of and turn them into biofuels, fuelling cars, heavy lorries or even aircraft. The Government competition was introduced to overcome barriers to investment by offering matched funding to support the construction of pre-commercial scale demonstration plants in the UK.<\/p>\n<p>Transport minister Andrew Jones said: \u201cThis is a great example of our commitment to innovative transport technology and supporting jobs and growth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBiofuels have an important role to play in keeping Britain moving forward in a sustainable and environmentally-friendly way. This \u00a325 million is not only a vital investment in technology that will help secure a greener future but will also support the creation of thousands of jobs.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He added: &#8220;Advanced biofuels have the potential to save at least 60% of the greenhouse gas emissions from the equivalent fossil fuel. The 3 successful bids show how the government is investing in transport and making better, clean journeys.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>NNFCC CEO Dr Jeremy Tomkinson said: \u201cI\u2019m delighted to see the Government award funding to three UK companies developing innovative, green transport fuels.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAdvanced biofuels are an important asset in our fight to combat climate change and to provide an alternative fuel to the fossil based fuels we use today. It\u2019s very encouraging to see new UK-based renewable technologies receiving support to become commercially viable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Three companies have been awarded a share of a \u00a325 million fund to develop low emission biofuels and boost local industry, Transport Minister Andrew Jones announced on 7 September. Feedstocks Biofuels Biorefining The Government announced this week that three companies have been awarded a share of its \u00a325 million Advanced Biofuels Demonstration competition, which was [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[5714,5842],"supplier":[7223,1216,4821,3182,5373,2317,2315,12935],"class_list":["post-28749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-biofuels","tag-biomass","supplier-advanced-plasma","supplier-bio-base-europe","supplier-bio-base-nwe","supplier-celtic-renewables","supplier-department-for-transport-govuk","supplier-european-commission","supplier-nnfcc","supplier-nova-pangaea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28749\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28749"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=28749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}