Swansea University is leading a multi-million pound initiative to help bring sustainable biofuels to market in North West Europe, after the Welsh government provided £600,000 to back the plans.
The €14m (£12.3m) Energetic Algae (EnAlgae) project is aiming to create best practice guidelines for how to produce biofuels from seaweed and phytoplankton in France, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Luxembourg and the UK.
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Yesterday, Welsh finance minister Jane Hutt signalled the start of the four-year project by confirming a £629,000 grant for EnAlgae, which is funded primarily by the INTERREG IVB North West Europe Programme.
Speaking to BusinessGreen, Dr Robin Shields, director of the Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Research at Swansea University’s College of Science, said EnAlgae aims to help policymakers and potential investors understand the latest developments in algae biofuel technology.
Facilities will be set up across North West Europe to help produce a database providing best practice guidelines on the production of macro (seaweed) and microscopic (phytoplankton) algae.
“There’s a big global drive for algal biofuels at the moment, but not much of it has been focused in northern European countries, where it’s much more challenging to produce,” he said. “So we’re looking to put some solutions in place in North West Europe, including the UK.”
The project involves 19 partners and 13 observers across eight EU member states, including the European Industry Biomass Association, National Non-Food Crop Centre and Laborelec Group GDF SUEZ.
Currently, algal bioenergy technologies are immature, but rapid advances are being made in the field. Industry believes that algae could provide a more sustainable alternative to crop-based biofuels as they do not compete with land that would otherwise be used for food production, deliver higher yields than many conventional biofuel feedstocks and require lower levels of fresh water during production processes.
Welsh finance minister Jane Hutt said the project will help broaden the EU’s sustainable biofuel market.
“Diversifying our bioenergy sector by developing sustainable biomass sources will not only help us meet our targets for reducing CO2 emissions, but also our reliance on fossil fuels in the challenge to tackle climate change,” she said.
Article source: http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2107333/wales-breeds-algae-network-north-west-europe
