UK awards GBP 37m to biomass innovation projects

The UK government on Thursday said it has awarded GBP 32 million (USD 39m/EUR 38.3m) in funding under the second phase of the Biomass Feedstocks Innovation Programme, which seeks to foster innovation in the production of sustainable domestic biomass.

Twelve projects will share this funding to move from the design stage to full demonstration. The design stage was supported with GBP 4 million under the first phase of the programme.

The winners include projects aimed at accelerating the breeding of high-yielding, resilient elephant grass and at developing new techniques to farm and harvest seaweed off the North Yorkshire coast.

In addition, the government also announced the allocation of GBP 5 million of funding to 22 projects under the first stage of the Hydrogen BECCS programme, which encourages the development of technologies to produce hydrogen through bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS).

The funding for both programmes comes from the GBP-1-billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio.

According to Energy Minister Greg Hands, accelerating home-grown renewables like biomass is a key part of ending the country’s dependency on expensive and volatile fossil fuels.

(GBP 1 = USD 1.219/EUR 1.196)

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