FARMING seaweed and growing algae from the by-products of whisky manufacturing are among 24 projects awarded £4 million government funding to boost biomass production.

The 24 projects, from start-ups and family-run businesses to research institutes and universities, will receive funding of up to £200,000 from the Government’s Biomass Feedstocks Innovation Programme to produce low-carbon energy using organic materials.

The projects aim to boost biomass productivity in the UK through breeding, planting, cultivating and harvesting of organic energy materials.

Energy Minister Lord Callanan said: “Working to develop new and greener types of fuel like biomass is an important part of building a diverse and green energy mix that we will need to achieve our climate change targets.

“We are backing UK innovators to ensure we have a home-grown supply of biomass materials, which is part of our wider plans to continue driving down carbon emissions as we build back greener.”

As a result of the £4 million government funding, the Biomass Feedstocks Innovation Programme will enable greater supply of organic materials from domestic sources rather than using imported matter, with the projects supporting rural economies across the UK, including providing jobs and encouraging investment.

READ MORE: Community woodland work praised at Castlemilk

The UK government intends to publish a new biomass strategy in 2022 which will review the amount of sustainable biomass available to the UK and how this could be best utilised across the economy to help achieve the Government’s net-zero and wider environmental commitments.

Dr Matthew Brown, co-founder of Forest Creation Partners, which received over £110,000, said: "This government funding will enable us to find more places to plant trees up and down the country, fighting climate change and supporting local nature and communities.

"We're proud to be part of Britain's global leadership in using data science to create a greener and better world."

Full list of successful Phase 1 projects:

  • Aberystwyth University received over £160,000 for its ‘Miscanspeed’ project, looking at breeding of high yielding, resilient Miscanthus varieties for the UK.
  • Centre for Environment and Sustainability, University of Surrey, received over £190,000, for its ‘Soilless cultivation for rapid bioenergy feedstock production’ project, looking at developing a rapid alternative cultivation system for dedicated bioenergy feedstocks.
  • ECCL 2020 Limited in Harrogate received over £170,000, for its project on ‘Proving low ground pressure harvesting equipment in the field to extend Short Rotation Coppice (SRC) Willow and Poplar wood crops harvesting season and open up more marginal landing for SRC Willow and Poplar crop planting’.
  • Forest Creation Partners Limited in England received over £110,000 for its project ‘Using geospatial data science to identify optimal planting sites for forestry-based biomass production’.
  • Green Fuels Research Ltd in Gloucestershire received over £190,000, for its ‘MISTY’ project, which intends to increase microalgal biomass productivity in the UK by co-culturing microalgae with bacteria, using wastewaters from breweries and dairy industries.
  • Hennock International Ltd in Devon received over £50,000 for its project on ‘Marginal land biomass harvesting and extraction using drone assisted technology’, which aims to develop and demonstrate a harvesting system for bracken on marginal land using a single pass harvesting system with GPS location.
  • Impact Laboratories Limited in Stirlingshire received over £170,000, for its ‘MiDas’ project, which will create a system for the commercial cultivation of algae. The project is centred around extracting mine water from abandoned mine sites that have been geothermally heated and utilising this heat to provide the optimal growing conditions for the biomass.
  • J George Limited t/a Hej Harvester in Gloucestershire received over £130,000, for its project on ‘Harvesting Agricultural Hedges for Biomass Production’.
  • Mostex Global Solutions Ltd received over £190,000, for its project on ‘Integrated whole tree extraction and on-site pre-processing of under-yielding forest resources’.
  • New Energy Farms EU Limited in Wiltshire received over £150,000, for its project on ‘Enhanced multiplication, propagation and establishment technologies combined with new varietal introductions for vegetatively propagated Energy Crops’.
  • NIAB in Cambridgeshire received over £180,000 for its multi-site demonstrator platform, ‘NIAB multi-site energy crop demonstrator’, which will run trials and a demonstration programme that will allow innovations relating to second generation energy crops to be assessed and compared both among themselves and to current industry standard approaches.
  • NMC2 Limited in Wiltshire received over £150,000 for its project on ‘Development of a biodegradable, bio-based treeshelter that improves planting efficiency by reducing the number of trees planted for biomass that are destroyed by wildlife as well as reducing plastic waste’.
  • Phycofoods Ltd in Edinburgh received over £180,000 for its project ‘Gold to Green to Gold (3Gs): Whisky byproducts to enhance production of microalgal biomass and reduce carbon emissions’, which looks at using CO2 and residual nutrients coupled with green energy to produce sustainable high-value microalgal biomass.
  • Reheat (Renewable Technologies) Limited in Northumberland received over £170,000 for its multi-site demonstrator platform ‘PromoBio’ project, which will provide a geographical development laboratory, which stretches the length and breadth of the UK.
  • Rickerby Estates Ltd in Carlisle received over £150,000 for its project ‘Upscaling UK Short Rotation Coppice Willow Planting and Harvesting Capacity’, which will look at three innovations that will improve the perennial energy crops sector by significantly increasing the scale up potential of the Short Rotation Coppice supply chain.
  • Rothamsted Research in Hertfordshire received over £150,000, for its project ‘Accelerating Willow Breeding and Deployment’, which will develop a plan to accelerate the breeding of willows for biomass and generate information to guide deployment of current willow varieties. 
  • SEaB Power Ltd in London received over £140,000 for its project ‘Integrated microalgae biomass production via carbon dioxide sequestration’, which will evaluate the design criteria, technical feasibility and economic viability of microalgae at sequestering carbon dioxide and biomass production. 
  • SeaGrown Limited in North Yorkshire received over £180,000 for its project, ‘Transforming UK offshore marine algae biomass production’, which will apply SeaGrown’s experience in seaweed production to mechanise offshore farming.
  • University of Glasgow received over £190,000 for its project ‘Automated planting, weeding and harvesting of Miscanthus in harsh environments, exploiting complimentary microalgal production for increased revenue options’. 
  • Teesdale Environmental Consulting Ltd in County Durham received over £60,000, for its project ‘Teesdale Moorland Biomass’, which will look at harvesting commercially viable biomass products from naturally generated moorland crops that are currently burned in situ as part of annual land management practices.
  • Terravesta Farms Limited, in Lincolnshire received over £150,000, for its project ‘Optimising Miscanthus Establishment through improved mechanisation and data capture to meet Net Zero targets (OMENZ)’, which will analyse the whole Miscanthus establishment pipeline, including approaches to field preparation, different machinery and techniques for planting, and the technology used to monitor early-stage growth.
  • UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, in Oxfordshire received over £190,000, for its multi-site demonstrator platform ‘BIOFIND: The Biomass Feedstock Innovation Demonstration Platform’, which will design and plan a UK-wide, multi-site demonstration platform for biomass feedstock production. 
  • University of York received over £190,000, for its project ‘HEMP-30 – Catalysing a step change in the production and utilisation of industrial hemp as a biorefinery crop in the UK’, which aims to accelerate a major expansion of the breeding, growing, harvesting and utilisation of industrial hemp as a UK crop through the 2020s and 2030s. 
  • White Horse Energy Ltd in Gloucestershire received over £100,000 for its project ‘Technological Innovations in Mobile Pelletisation: Testing the practical efficacy of mobile pelletisers in processing a range of energy crops at harvest site in the UK; including the innovations required to ensure as broad an adoption as possible’.

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