UK's DEFRA to study commercial feasibility of biomass feedstocks

21 October 2009 16:40  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--The UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is to investigate the commercial feasibility of chemical production from sustainable biomass, the government department said on Wednesday.

The North East Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC) would manage the 30-month Assessing Biomass to Chemicals project, which would provide an insight into the possibility of full-scale chemicals manufacturing from a range of alternative sustainable biomass feedstocks, DEFRA added in a statement.

The goal was to produce estimated capital and operating costs for the most cost-effective and technically feasible options, the statement said.

NEPIC technical manager Mark Lewis said: “The project will use high-throughput modelling techniques to explore which biomass and processing combinations are practical in terms of capital and operating costs, as well as the amount of biomass needed.

"Given a positive outcome, we believe this information will stimulate actual investment on the ground," he added.

DEFRA is partly sponsoring the study, which is also being supported by several industry names including AkzoNobel and GrowHow, and Teesside and Newcastle universities.

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By: Lucy Craymer
+44 20 8652 3214

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