London Press Service
Informs
MASSIVE BOOST
TO "GREEN" FUEL DEVELOPMENT
A new low-cost fuel is set to be developed by a groundbreaking biotechnology company, with funding from a UK government technology programme and other forward-thinking investors.
The firm, Green Biologics, plans to discover a way of manufacturing biobutanol that has been identified as a superior, next-generation biofuel for transport and is predicted to cut the cost of production by up to a third.
Biobutanol is produced by the fermentation of starch and sugars. Today, it is used as a chemical feed for farm animals but high production costs have prevented it being widely used as a fuel.
The company’s Butafuel product is an advanced transportation biofuel based on butanol. Butanol is derived from waste plant material (biomass) offering a more sustainable and environmentally friendly future.
The UK’s Minister for Science & Innovation, Malcolm Wicks, said: “The development of biofuels is expected to play a major part in reducing transport emissions post-2020. We need companies like Green Biologics to work on developing the technology now needed to make new types of biofuel to help meet our future goals
“Tackling climate change is a huge global challenge. We believe the UK must put its best efforts towards developing the new technologies we need to help cut carbon emissions. There’s also a great economic opportunity for UK businesses in investing in this area,” he added.
Green Biologics is an industrial biotech company aiming to become the world’s leading supplier of advanced fermentation techniques for conversion of lignocellulosic plant material to renewable biofuels and chemicals.
Green Biologics founder and chief executive officer Dr. Edward Green said: “Biofuels, such as biobutanol, are sustainable and environmentally friendly next-generation fuels that will extend, and ultimately replace, fossil fuels such as petrol and diesel.
“Although butanol is not currently used as a biofuel, it has a number of properties that make it extremely attractive. It is a renewable liquid fuel, produced from the fermentation of sugars, which can easily be integrated into the existing fuel infrastructure by blending with petrol. Unlike bioethanol, it offers similar energy per litre to petrol, has low vapour pressure and is easy to store, handle and transport via pipelines.”
BP has recently announced a collaboration with DuPont and British Sugar to make biobutanol using conventional technology in the UK. BP provides a route for butanol into the transport fuel market and aims to blend butanol with petrol at its 1,200 filling stations.
In addition, in an attempt to curb carbon-dioxide emissions, the European Union (EU) Commission has suggested that biofuels should account for 5.75 per cent of total fuel sales by 2010 and should account for 10 per cent of total fuel sales by 2020 and represents a huge increase in the market for biofuels.
In the UK, from April 2008, fuel suppliers will be required to ensure that an increasing percentage of their total fuel sales is made up of biofuels by 2020.
Fuel line: UK company Green Biologics is to develop Butafuel, a next-generation biofuel produced by fermenting starch and sugars. These small-scale fermentors are used to demonstrate the butafuel process at lab-scale.
Green Biologics is partnering with EKB Technology, a specialist in innovative process technology, to develop an advanced fermentation process for butanol with improved yields and productivity and to demonstrate lower production costs for its Butafuel product.
Dr. Green explained: “The major barrier to butanol production has been the high cost of the conventional starch-fermentation process. Our expertise in microbial strain development, together with EKB’s innovative process technology and the use of non-edible food stocks, should lead to a step change in the economic viability of the manufacturing process – we are aiming for a two to three-fold reduction in cost. We are effectively using our knowledge of enzymology, microbial physiology and fermentation to optimise and ‘re-commercialise’ the butanol fermentation process.”
Green Biologics is also expanding its staff numbers on moving from a research to a development phase. Dr. Green added: “New investment, together with significant grant funding, our collaboration with EKB Technologies, and the strengthening of our board with the appointment of Andrew Rickman as chairman are exciting developments.
“Dr. Rickman founded Bookham Technology Inc, the world’s second largest, fibre-optics telecoms component producer, and brings substantial management expertise and a hands-on approach that will be particularly valuable as we move to the next stage of demonstrating that we can produce our own Butafuel product.”
Dr. Rickman said: “I am delighted to be joining Green Biologics at such an interesting time … The company is well placed to demonstrate that it can produce a renewable and environmentally friendly transportation biofuel for the 21st century using cheaper, faster and cleaner production methods than conventional petrochemical processes.”
Biofuels for transportation are attractive replacements for petrol and are rapidly penetrating fuel markets as low-concentration blends. Biofuels, derived from natural plant sources, are renewable. In addition, they are environmentally friendly (reduced CO2 emissions), reduce our dependence on finite fossil fuels and help revitalise rural economies.
Green Biologics is committed to driving down the cost of biofuels by implementing advanced proprietary fermentation technologies that reduce processing costs through increased productivity, and also reduce feedstock costs through the implementation of agricultural waste and dedicated energy crops.
By Richard Maino
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