£16.5million bioenergy laboratories to develop low carbon technologies
Aston University is developing new £16.5million engineering laboratories to showcase and develop renewable low carbon technologies including a biomass fuelled power plant.
Due to open on Aston's campus in Birmingham in October 2012, the facility will include giant photo bioreactors harnessing algae and a 0.4MWel small scale industrial power plant fuelled by biomass. According to the university, the plant will generate heat and power from biomass using algae, sewage sludge, wood and agricultural waste as sources of fuel. It will also generate biomass by products including hydrogen power for low carbon vehicles or fuel cells and Biochar for use as an agricultural fertiliser and a source for decentralised hydrogen production.
"Our long term research ambition is to create a 'thermal ring' of small scale industrial power plants around Birmingham," said Professor Andreas Hornung, head of the European Bioenergy Research Institute (EBRI) at Aston University. "This could divert biodegradable waste away from landfill and incineration and feed energy back into the National Grid."
According to the Professor, the EBRI will be using these laboratories to develop biomass technologies which in no way conflict with food production and are solely planned to operate on biogenic wastes. "We want to divert waste materials from going directly to landfill or incineration and harness the enormous untapped resources of biomass," he said. "Our new facility will showcase to industry how biomass can produce real life solutions to tackling waste, with both environmental and financial benefits."
Aston University's vice chancellor Professor Julia King, who is the UK's Low Carbon Business Ambassador, also asserted the importance of reducing carbon emissions in order to tackle climate change. "Through our research, our institutional environmental performance and our graduates, we are working to deliver the technologies and the people to lead the delivery of the low carbon economy for the West Midlands region, the UK and beyond," she said. "EBRI's research promises to provide an important breakthrough in the quest to produce really sustainable, clean, and reliable power from new sources."
