StatoilHydro to build first full scale offshore floating wind turbine

StatoilHydro has decided to build the world’s first full scale floating wind turbine, Hywind, and test it over a two-year period offshore Karmøy. The The company is investing approximately 400 million NOK. Planned startup is autumn 2009.



The project combines known technology in an innovative way. A 2.3 MW wind turbine is attached to the top of a so-called Spar-buoy, a solution familiar from production platforms and offshore loading buoys.

“We have drawn on our offshore expertise from the oil and gas industry to develop wind power offshore,” says Alexandra Bech Gjørv, head of New Energy in StatoilHydro.

The rotor blades on the floating wind turbine will have a diameter of 80 metres, and the nacelle will tower some 65 metres above the sea surface. The floatation element will have a draft of some 100 metres below the sea surface, and will be moored to the seabed using three anchor points. The wind turbine can be located in waters with depths ranging from 120 to 700 metres.

“Taking wind turbines to sea presents new opportunities. The wind is stronger and more consistent, areas are large and the challenges we are familiar with from onshore projects are fewer,” says Alexandra Bech Gjørv.

Contracts signed
The pilot project will be assembled in Åmøyfjorden near Stavanger and is to be located some 10 kilometres offshore Karmøy in the county of Rogaland. The wind turbine itself is to be built by Siemens. Technip will build the floatation element and have responsibility for the installation offshore. Nexans will lay cables to shore, and Haugaland Kraft will be responsible for the landfall. Enova is supporting the project with 59 million NOK.

StatoilHydro is allocating in excess of 400 million NOK to building and developing the pilot, as well as research and development of the wind turbine concept. The goal of the pilot is to reduce costs so that floating wind power can compete in the power market.

“Floating wind power is not mature technology yet, and the road to commercialization and large scale development is long. An important aspect of the project is therefore research and development,” says Alexandra Bech Gjørv.

The company has entered into a technology development agreement with Siemens for the project. The wind turbines must function optimally even in large waves.

Need for further R&D
“The wind turbines must work satisfactorily even when subjected to movements, and it must also be possible to carry out necessary maintenance to the highest of safety standards,” says Bech Gjørv.

Tested in a wave tank
A three metre high model has already been tested successfully in SINTEF Marintek’s wave simulator in Trondheim. The goal of the pilot is to qualify the technology and reduce costs to a level that will mean that floating wind turbines can compete with other energy sources.

“If we succeed, then we will have taken a major step in moving the wind power industry offshore. Floating wind turbines can make a major contribution to providing the world with clean power, but there are major technical and commercial challenges that need to be resolved. If we are to succeed, we will need to cooperate closely with the authorities. As with other technologies for renewable energy, floating wind power will be dependent on incentive schemes to be viable,” says Alexandra Bech Gjørv.

1336 Technologies: $12M raised for a solar start-up

Solar technology startup 1336 Technologies, Inc. announced the close of its first round of institutional venture capital financing, receiving $12 million.

1336 Technologies is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology spinout company that has a new cell architecture that uses low-cost fabrication methods to increase the efficiency of multi-crystalline solar cells.

Plans include building industrial-scale, 100 megawatt plants around the world. Their architecture, developed at MIT, improves surface texture and metallization to enhance silicon solar cell efficiency by 25% (from 15 - 19%) while lowering costs. 1366 Technologies will partner with solar companies and government agencies, licensing its technology to accelerate the ongoing global transition to solar.

North Bridge Venture Partners and Polaris Venture Partners co-led the funding round. The company said it would use the proceeds for further development and to acquire manufacturing space.

Thenergo to invest in a jatropha nuts power plant

Thenergo, a developer of combined heat and power (CHP) energy systems, said it will invest 11 million € to develop a CHP plant at Merksplas, Belgium, to be fuelled by jatropha nuts.

Thenergo claims the 'Greenpower' project will be operational for up to 8,000 hours per year, or approximately 11 months of the year, generating 6MWth of heat for two industrial partners, and 9MWe of electricity for the equivalent of 20,000 households.

The unit is expected to be operational in February 2009.

Greenpower is a joint venture between Thenergo, the majority shareholder and operator, and the Quirynen and the Dielis families.

Greenpower will run on bio-oil extracted from the nuts of the jatropha plant. The jatropha nut is a non-edible fruit grown on semi-arid or waste land in South East Asia.

Nanosolar sells first flexible solar cells

After five years, more than $100 million, and the financial blessings of some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley (the founders of Google, eBay and others), Nanosolar is finally selling something: the first megawatt of its solar panels will be used as part of a power plant in eastern Germany.

Printed like a newspaper directly on to aluminium foil, solar cells are flexible, light and, if you believe the company, expected to make it as cheap to produce electricity from sunlight as from coal. The technology is particularly exciting because it can be used nearly everywhere.

"This is the world's lowest-cost solar panel, which we believe will make us the first solar manufacturer capable of profitably selling solar panels at as little as 99 cents a watt," said Roscheisen.

SEAT to install solar panels at Martorell plant

SEAT is this year planning to become one of the world's largest solar energy generators, with the firm's factory at Martorell to see the large-scale installation of solar panels generating enough renewable power to avoid the emission of more than 11,700 tonnes of CO2 a year.

By putting up a 8.5 megawatt (MW) array of solar photovoltaic panels, the system will generate 11.2 Gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity a year by the end of 2008. The first phase of solar panels will be placed on the roof of SEAT's corporate building in Martorell, as well as on the support structure of one of the finished vehicle parking lots.

The next step will be to cover two more distribution areas with a total surface area of more than 66,000 m2 (16.3 acres). Adding panels to the roofs of several other assembly buildings will further increase generating capacity by 139,000 m2 (34.3 acres).

Another recent advance at Martorell is expected to remove up to 25,000 trucks from Spain’s roads. On 18th January the first FGC (Ferrocarriles de la Generalitat de Catalunya) train carrying vehicles from the SEAT factory in Martorell reached the Port of Barcelona.

The trip marked the culmination of a €6.8 million (£5 million) project to connect SEAT-Martorell and the port by rail. To create the connection between the Martorell factory and the port a new branch line had to be built, part of the main railway line adapted and a new access point to the unloading area of the port created. When fully operational the new goods transport service will see two trains per day transport an expected 80,000 vehicles per year.

INSTALLED U.S. wind power capacity surged 45% in 2007

Shattering all its previous records, the U.S. wind energy industry installed 5,244 megawatts (MW) in 2007, expanding the nation’s total wind power generating capacity by 45% in a single calendar year and injecting an investment of over $9 billion into the economy, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) announced today. The new wind projects account for about 30% of the entire new power-producing capacity added nationally in 2007 and will power the equivalent of 1.5 million American households annually while strengthening U.S. energy supply with clean, homegrown electric power.

“This is the third consecutive year of record-setting growth, establishing wind power as one of the largest sources of new electricity supply for the country,” said AWEA Executive Director Randall Swisher. “This remarkable and accelerating growth is driven by strong demand, favorable economics, and a period of welcome relief from the on-again, off-again, boom-and-bust, cycle of the federal production tax credit (PTC) for wind power.”

“But the PTC and tax incentives for other renewable energy sources are now in danger of lapsing at the end of this year—and at the worst moment for the U.S economy,” added Swisher. “The U.S. wind industry calls on Congress and the President to quickly extend the PTC—the only existing U.S. incentive for wind power—in order to sustain this remarkable growth along with the manufacturing jobs, fresh economic opportunities, and reduction of global warming pollution that it provides.”

The U.S. wind power fleet now numbers 16,818 MW and spans 34 states. American wind farms will generate an estimated 48 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of wind energy in 2008, just over 1% of U.S. electricity supply, powering the equivalent of over 4.5 million homes. This wind power also:

• Helps protect consumers from increases in electricity costs due to volatile fuel prices and supply disruptions: by reducing the use of natural gas and other fuels used for electricity generation, and lowering the pressure on their price, wind can save consumers money, even in regions with low or no wind resources.
• Reduces global warming emissions: To generate the same amount of electricity using the average U.S. power plant fuel mix would cause over 28 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) to be emitted annually.
• Conserves precious water resources: Wind farms don’t need water for steam or for cooling, a benefit that is increasingly valuable in arid areas and in times of drought.

Wind power’s strong performance is expected to continue this year, with AWEA’s initial estimates indicating that 2008 could equal 2007 in new wind capacity installed. Developers report that with strong demand for wind power across the country, wind turbines are sold out for the year. However, AWEA projects that with more companies entering the market, more turbines will become available. The pace of growth in 2008 and beyond is expected to largely depend, not on turbine availability, but on the timing and duration of an extension of the federal production tax credit.

Madrid: "Air Trees" for an ecoboulevard

In Madrid the first of three unique buildings has been built: the “Air Tree,” designed to act as a social center and to green the environment.








This first air tree is the result of 16 hemicycles arranged in a circle, covered with a thermal fabric and supported by a lightweight, easily assembled frame, which is identical for the three large “dynamos”. In terms of energy these theatrical scaffoldings are self-sufficient, relying on a system of photovoltaic solar collection. It also produces oxygen like a tree. It completes its social function by being a public and pleasant gathering place creating activity in a suburban site.












The goal of this project is to create an atmosphere that invites and promotes activity in an urban public space that is “sick” due to “bad planning”.

Energy from the sea : the Pelamis wavepower

Portuguese surfers keeping an eye on the weather will be joined this month by engineers and businessmen, but they will be hoping for very different reports. The men and women behind the latest renewable energy project will be looking for a flat, calm sea.

Portugal is poised to open what will be the world's first commercial wavefarm, and while the coastline's formidable surf will be a source of electricity, the engineers need a decent "weather window" to be able to get their machinery out to sea.

The Pelamis machines, named after the Latin for sea snake and developed by a Scottish company that leads the world in one of the newest renewable energy fields, are a series of red tubes, each about the size of a small commuter train, linked together, and pointed in the direction of the waves. The waves travel down the tubes, causing them to bob up and down, and a hydraulic system harnesses this movement to generate electricity.

The three "sea snakes" will soon be towed out to a spot some three miles from the coast of northern Portugal at Agucadoura, from where the electricity they produce will be pumped into the national grid.

But the hi-tech venture has not been without its problems. The latest date for inauguration of the wavefarm was to be Wednesday, but a combination of bad weather, bad luck and the pitfalls of developing any new technology has meant the machines are still on dry land, awaiting the next calm spell to be taken out to sea.

The machines were designed and built in Scotland by Pelamis Wave Power (PWP), but it took the intervention of the Portuguese to give the project real impetus. The renewable energy company Enersis ordered the wavefarm, recognising that it would not initially be profitable, and the Portuguese government has set tariffs for wave energy well into the future, ensuring that profitability is not the key question. "What we are assembling here is the first wavefarm in the world," says Antonio Sa da Costa of Enersis, and that is not without risk. But Portugal is the ideal testing ground: it has a long coast compared with its size of population and resources, and, with the government's support, developers are keen to invest.

Enersis had planned to expand the Agucadora wavefarm to 30 machines next year, but the setbacks forced it to scale back its aims. If progress in production, development and installation can match its ambitious plans, Enersis would like eventually to have several hundred machines floating off the coast to produce 500MW of electricity. That would be enough to light up 350,000 homes and, Enersis claims, for the whole project to become profitable.

Max Carcas, PWP's business development director, says the company expects to improve efficiency once the system is operating: "Typically costs fall by some 15% for each doubling in installed capacity."

But Teresa Pontes, of the National Institute of Energy, Technology and Innovation in Lisbon, believes it is too early to be sure that these systems will work and be taken up around the world. She is positive about the potential for wave power in Portugal because of its geography, but compares the current state of the technology with that of wind power a decade ago. "Wind energy is a simpler technology than wave power - and it took many years for that to mature.

"Research needs to be continued. Maybe the best system has not been deployed yet - if you think of the first aeroplanes, they are very different from what we use now."

As PWP struggles to get its machines into the water, competitors are springing up. While PWP has signed deals to provide sea snakes for projects off the coasts of Cornwall and Orkney, other models are being developed. A Canadian company is assembling a project based on buoys that it hopes will harness waves off the coast of Oregon. In Australia, a system of buoys tethered to the sea floor has been undergoing tests for years.

But Portugal's enthusiasm for renewable energy has given impetus to wave power. The Socialist prime minister, Jose Socrates, recently increased the country's renewable energy target for 2010 from 39% to 45%. Until now Portugal has relied mainly on wind power, but it will eventually run out of land for the windmills and needs the sea if it is to meet its target.

via The Guardian

New hydrogen-powered bike

The chinese company, Shanghai Pearl Hydrogen Power Source Technology Co, just came out with a new hydrogen bike at the 9th China International Exhibition on Gas Technology, Equipment and Applications.

The hydrogen bike can reach speeds of 15 mph with a range of around 60 miles. The tanks on the hydrogen bike which are mounted behind the seat take approximately half an hour to recharge and compare favorably to an electric bicycle that takes upwards of 3 hours. The 20” wheel prototype weighs 32kg.

The bike's price is $2600 right now, but will go down to $500 when mass produced.

Solar island for green power

United Arab Emirates has just contracted with a Swiss firm, CSEM to purchase a floating solar island. The construction of a prototype is now underway in the Gulf. It will have a diameter of 100 metres, one-tenth of the size of an actual solar island with a peak power generation of roughly 1 megawatt. Because of its floating structure, the island could be easily turned to always face the sun, generating maximum power.

The plant will produce energy by concentrating solar power onto pipes containing water. The water will boil, and be used to spin turbines. Once shipped off-shore, the islands could be used to convert seawater to hydrogen, allowing them to be autonomous and untethered to the shore. They hydrogen could be picked up by barges, instead of having to transport the electricity to shore via a physical connection

Ericsson's Tower Tube: innovative cellphone stations

The Ericsson Tower Tube is an innovative construction that houses base stations and antennas, fully encapsulating them in an aesthetic, energy-efficient and environmentally friendly tower. It employs cutting-edge design and building materials, and can be built in a variety of shapes and sizes, with customized finishes that make it a natural fit for any landscape.

The Tower Tube replaces conventional telecommunication sites with a sleek, architecturally designed, aesthetically pleasing tower. It can be regarded as a feature of any landscape.

It employs modular concrete construction that allows the structure to be deployed quickly and easily. The tower can be erected in a variety of heights, shapes and styles. The exterior’s color, pattern and finish can also be adapted to help it fit into rural or urban settings, and win public acceptance for a new site.

The tower is a self-contained site. It safely houses all equipment within its slim design (about 5m in diameter), reducing the need for more land.

The tower’s concrete exterior protects equipment effectively from the elements and provides a stable internal environment. Indoor equipment can be used and antennas are protected by a radome, or weatherproof enclosure. The robust concrete membrane provides additional protection from vandalism and lightning.

Radio base stations (RBS) are enclosed within the tower. They are initially installed at the bottom of the tower and then raised to the top by an elevator. By positioning a RBS at height, there is very low feeder loss, which allows improved network coverage and capacity

Taiwan mulls current power generation

The government is now discussing the possibility of large-scale ocean current power generation, using the strong Kuroshio current off the east coast of Taiwan to generate up to 1.68 trillion kilowatt-hours per year, officials at the Council for Economic Planning and Development said on Monday.

The project task force, led by Chen Fa-lin - director of Energy and Environment Research Laboratory under Hsinchu-based Industrial Technology Research Institute, is currently working on fine-tuning the guidelines, which will be presented to CEPD senior officials in August or September.

After the project is green-lighted, the possible first step should be setting up a five-megawatt marine turbine off Taiwan's east coast on a trial basis, with the goal of testing both related technologies and power-generating efficiency, CEPD officials, adding that hopefully, the project can enter the next stage in three years.

"Current power generation is not a new idea," officials noted. "Countries like Britain, Canada, Norway, and Australia all have experience in deploying offshore marine turbines with capacities ranging from one megawatt to eight megawatts to support the electricity demand of hundreds to thousands of households."

"The problem is not the technology itself but how to locate a suitable site - with a current strong enough, an undersea shelf not too deep, and a distance short enough to achieve power supply efficiency," they added.

However, they explained that based on the surveys done by National Taiwan University, the sea area of some 6,000 square kilometers between the eastern county of Taitung and the outlying Green Island in the Pacific Ocean appears to meet all the requirements, and that the maximum potential capacity there exceeds 1.68 trillion kilowatt- hours per year - while Taiwan's current annual demand of electricity is only about 98 billion kilowatt-hours.

According to the estimates of the project task force, a given site of 25 square kilometers located in the "shallow, high-speed zone" could support the deployment of 1,000 one-megawatt marine turbines, which would have a peak capacity of 1,000 megawatts: equal to the output of Taiwan's second nuclear power plant.

Chen, the project leader, noted that once the turbines enter commercial operation, Taiwan's coal power plants could be retired, while the nuclear power generators could be used as a backup system - thereby resulting in a great reduction in Taiwan's total carbon dioxide emissions.

via

Magnetic refrigerator needs no electricity

Scientists at the Technical University of Denmark have created a refrigerator that cools using magnets instead of electricity

A group of researchers at the Technical University of Denmark’s project laboratory in Risø have discovered a cooling method that uses magnetic materials instead of electricity, reported daily free newspaper Nyhedsavisen.

The invention will allow for refrigerators to replace existing electric refrigerators in homes and businesses with a fully environmentally friendly power source. Although the first prototype will not be ready until 2010, the project’s researchers say the appliance’s cooling cycle efficiency will be 60 percent greater than that of conventional refrigerators.

The new method uses opposing magnetic fields to increase the temperature of the materials employed. The heat energy is transported through a non-volatile fluid, such as water, and then thermodynamically reversed to a cold temperature. The scientists have already been able to cool a 20° C room to 11°C using the new technology.

‘It probably isn’t realistic to believe that magnetic cooling technology will be immediately available for consumer use, especially as refrigerator manufacturers have brought prices down so much in the past few years,’ said Christian Bahl, one of DTU’s project researchers.

But Bahl said another of the magnetic refrigerator’s advantages is that it is silent.

‘So it will likely be first used in various niche areas, such as places where a quiet environment is an important factor.’

Although magnetic cooling is not in itself a new research field, the DTU scientists were the first to use the technology in an actual physical setting to cool room temperatures.

The Copenhagen Post

U.S. House passes green energy bill

The House of Representatives just passed an energy bill, 241-172, that includes a renewable electricity standard (RES) of 15 percent by 2020, strong lighting efficiency standards, increased incentives for investment in renewable energy, and safeguards to protect sensitive public lands from oil and gas drilling. The House failed to vote on fuel economy improvements. The RES requires utilities to obtain at least 15 percent of their power from a combination of energy efficiency and renewable sources such as wind, solar and biomass energy by 2020.

“By passing the renewable electricity standard the House of Representatives has taken a real step forward in enacting the clean energy policies we need to reduce global warming pollution. This shows the House is ready to take strong action on global warming in the fall,” said Karen Wayland, legislative director at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). “We need this same leadership in the conference committee. By combining a strong renewable energy standard with the Senate’s fuel economy improvements, this Congress can make a serious down payment on preventing the worst impacts of global warming.”

Measures that were not included in the House bill but must be addressed in the conference committee with the Senate to make meaningful reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and protect the environment are:

• Matching the Senate’s fuel economy improvement provision of 35 miles per gallon by 2020.
• Adequate safeguards to ensure that intensive biofuels production does not result in water pollution, habitat destruction, or loss of forests.
• A greenhouse gas standard that would require advance biofuels to emit 50 percent less global warming pollution than gasoline.

“America needs the president to sign an energy bill with a renewable electricity standard and fuel economy improvements, and strong incentives for energy efficiency. This will lead to meaningful reductions of global warming pollution and protect our natural resources,” said Wayland.

via NRDC

India: cheap, green, food-friendly biofuel produced with sorghum

he first commercial batch of biofuel from the stalks of a new sweet sorghum hybrid has been produced this month (13 June) at a distillery in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India.

Ethanol is produced from the sweet juice in the stalk of the sweet sorghum. The researchers responsible for the hybrid say by using sorghum, resource-poor farmers will still be able to use the sorghum grain and protect food security, while earning an additional income from selling the stalks.

This first batch marks a major success for the research consortium that developed the new hybrid, says Belum V. S. Reddy, principal sorghum breeder at the India-based International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).

Sweet sorghum is a cheap biofuel crop to grow, costing about a fifth of that of sugarcane. It also requires half the water needed to grow maize and about an eighth of that required for sugarcane.

It is also carbon neutral, according to the Latin American Thematic Network on Bioenergy — a project promoting the sustainable use of bioenergy. Sweet sorghum takes in the same of amount of carbon dioxide during its growth that it emits during growth and its later conversion to ethanol and the eventual ethanol combustion.

When sweet sorghum biofuel is blended with petrol it also emits less polluting sulphur and nitrous oxide compared to sugarcane biofuel, according to Reddy.

A major problem for ICRISAT was ensuring availability of sweet sorghum stalks throughout the year. "Different plant types produce different amounts of juice at different times of the year and it is important to have genetic stocks that can produce the same amount of juice throughout the year," says Reddy.

ICRISAT solved the problem by developing hybrids that can be planted at any time of the year.

The team intend to plant at least 4000 acres of the new crop during the next rainy season, according to G. Subba Rao, director of Aakrithi Agricultural Associates of India, a partner in the project.

Clusters of villages have been identified for the planting, and seeds distributed to the farmers. A method has also been designed to collect the stalks from the farmers, which will then be crushed at cluster centres and the syrup transported to the main distillery.

Via SciDev.Net

Green Biologics Awarded £560,000 to Develop Biobutanol

An Oxfordshire biotechnology company is set to develop a new low-cost ‘next generation’ biofuel, with £250,000 funding from the Department of Trade and Industry’s Technology Programme and £310,000 from shareholder investors and business angels.

Green Biologics Ltd plans to develop a way of manufacturing biobutanol, identified as a superior ‘next generation’ biofuel for transport, which will slash the cost of production by up to a third. Biobutanol is currently used as a chemical feed for stock but high production costs have prevented it being widely used as a fuel.

Green Biologics has also announced the appointment of Dr Andrew Rickman OBE as non-executive Chairman. Dr Rickman founded Bookham Technology Inc, the world’s second largest fibre optics telecom component producer, and is actively involved with a number of growing technology companies.

Minister for Science and Innovation, Malcolm Wicks, said: “The development of biofuels is expected to play a major part in reducing transport emissions post 2020. We need companies like Green Biologics to work on developing the technology now needed to make new types of biofuel to help meet our future goals.

“Tackling climate change is a huge global challenge. We believe the UK must put its best efforts towards developing the new technologies we need to help cut carbon emissions. There’s also a great economic opportunity for UK businesses in investing in this area.”

Green Biologics Founder & CEO, Dr Edward Green, said: “Biofuels, such as biobutanol, are sustainable and environmentally friendly ‘next generation’ fuels that will extend, and ultimately replace, fossil fuels such as petrol and diesel. Although butanol is not currently used as a biofuel, it has a number of properties that make it extremely attractive. It is a renewable liquid fuel, produced from the fermentation of sugars, which can easily be integrated into the existing fuel infrastructure by blending with conventional fuels like petrol and diesel. Unlike bioethanol, it offers similar energy per litre to petrol, has low vapour pressure and is easy to store, handle and transport via pipelines.”

Biobutanol is produced by the clostridial fermentation of starch and sugars, a process first commercialised in 1916 to produce acetone for munitions for the war effort but which was displaced in the 1950s by a cheaper petrochemical method.

BP has recently announced a collaboration with Dupont and British Sugar to manufacture biobutanol using conventional technology in the UK. BP provides a route for butanol into the transport fuel market and aims to blend butanol with petrol at its 1200 filling stations. In addition, in an attempt to curb C02 emissions, the EU has suggested that biofuels should account for 5.75% of total fuel sales by 2010. More recently the Commission has proposed that biofuels should make up 10% of total fuel sales by 2020 which represents a huge increase in the market for biofuels.

Within the UK, the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation will, from April 2008, require fuel suppliers to ensure that an increasing percentage of their total fuel sales are made up of biofuels by 2020. The Government intends that biobutanol should count as a renewable transport fuel under the RTFO. The Government is due to consult on the details of the RTFO very shortly.

Green Biologics is partnering with EKB Technology, a specialist in innovative process technology, to develop an advanced fermentation process for butanol with improved yields and productivity and to demonstrate lower production costs for its Butafuel™ product.

Dr Green explained: “The major barrier to butanol production has been the high cost of the conventional starch fermentation process. Our expertise in microbial strain development, together with EKB’s innovative process technology and the use of non-edible food stocks, should lead to a step change in the economic viability of the manufacturing process - we are aiming for a two to three fold reduction in cost. We are effectively using our knowledge of enzymology, microbial physiology and fermentation to optimise and ‘re-commercialise’ the butanol fermentation process.”

Green Biologics is also expanding its staff numbers as it moves from a research to a development phase. Dr Green added: “New investment, together with significant grant funding, our collaboration with EKB Technologies, and the strengthening of our board with the appointment of Andrew Rickman as Chairman are exciting developments. Dr Rickman brings substantial management expertise and a hands-on approach that will be particularly valuable as we move to the next stage of demonstrating that we can produce our own Butafuel™ product.”

Dr Rickman said: “I am delighted to be joining Green Biologics at such an interesting time and I look forward to working with Edward and the rest of the management team to build on their achievements over the last three years. The Company is well-placed to demonstrate that it can produce a renewable and environmentally friendly transportation biofuel for the 21st century using cheaper, faster and cleaner production methods than conventional petrochemical processes.”