£5m funding award to develop biohydrogen production for transport sector
The Biorenewables Development Centre (BDC) near York, together with its partners, has secured another £5m worth of funding.
It follows on from the successful Hydrogen BECCS Innovation Programme phase one funding for the centre’s H2-Boost project.
H2Boost aims to produce biohydrogen for the UK transport sector.
The £5m funding unveiled today – 14 August – is for a phase two project and has come from the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP), which has been awarded by the Government’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
Building on the work of phase one, a multi-step process will aim to create a technology that is both financially viable and environmentally sustainable.
Deborah Rathbone, Bioscience innovation team manager at the Biorenewables Development Centre, said: “We are pleased to be awarded phase two funding to further develop biohydrogen for the UK transport sector.
“Working with our 10 partners, the University of Leeds, Greenthread Solutions, Qube Renewables, Aardvark EM, WSP, Cyanocapture Ltd, The Maltings Organic Treatment Ltd, AB Agri, NNFCC and CM90 Ltd, we have a real opportunity here to make a difference.
“The H2Boost objectives align with the UK ambition of reaching net-zero by 2050 with low carbon hydrogen-based technologies providing up to 35% of energy requirements.”
The work undertaken by the consortium will contribute to the decarbonisation of the passenger and long-haulage transport sector which contributed to 16% of 2019 domestic greenhouse gas emissions.
The growing demand for hydrogen to meet the UK net-zero ambitions will rely on processes such as those deployed by the H2Boost consortium.
It combines expertise from academia and industry with support from a panel of external advisors on feedstock pre-treatment, fermentation, microbial analysis, and downstream processing.
The Hydrogen BECCS Innovation Programme supports technologies which can produce hydrogen from biogenic feedstocks and be combined with carbon capture.
It forms part of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero £1bn Net Zero Innovation Portfolio, which aims to accelerate the commercialisation of innovative clean energy technologies and processes through the 2020s and 2030s.
The Biorenewables Development Centre, a subsidiary of the University of York, is a Research, Development and Demonstration organisation working at the interface between academia and industry to develop, scale-up and help commercialise bio-based products and processes.
It provides clients with ideas to convert plants, microbes and biowastes into profitable, high-value, greener products.
