Work has begun on construction of a multi-million pound research facility for bioenergy and biofuels, brewing technology and food and drink processing at The University of Nottingham.
The Bioenergy Centre, the first of its kind in the country, is being funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), leading global brewer SABMiller and The University of Nottingham.
It will house: one of the six Sustainable Bioenergy Centre research programmes funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC); a Centre for Brewing Technology and Innovation; and the Food and Biofuel Innovation Centre.
The centre which will cost £6.5m to build will provide nearly £20m of research expertise, laboratories and pilot facilities equipped with the very latest testing, demonstration and incubation facilities over an area of 3,100sqm. It will offer support, research and development and knowledge and technology transfer to small to medium-sized businesses in the East Midlands. The Sustainable Bioenergy and Brewing Science research teams from the University’s School of Biosciences will also be based there.
Professor David Greenaway, Vice-Chancellor of the University, said: “The University of Nottingham is pioneering research into new and sustainable sources of bioenergy. It has formed partnerships with global energy companies to local farmers, driving innovation through collaboration. This new Centre with its cutting edge facilities will enable the University to bring together many of the world’s leading experts in this field and help us tackle some of the major challenges of harnessing power from sustainable sources.”
The sustainable bioenergy research team will be working on the development of sustainable bioenergy fuels — exploring new technologies that could provide replacements to fossil fuels.
Experts in plant sciences, microbiology, food sciences, engineering and brewing science will be leading the five-year research programme into the conversion of waste materials into Ethanol.
These sustainable bioenergy fuels use industrial and agricultural waste products and inedible parts of crops, such as straw, so do not take products out of the food chain. The studies are part of the national £26m BBSRC Sustainable Bioenergy Centre — the biggest ever single UK public investment in bioenergy research.
Professor Douglas Kell, BBSRC Chief Executive said: “Sustainable bioenergy and industrial biotechnology are hugely important areas, both of BBSRC’s strategy and for society as a whole.
The BBSRC Sustainable Bioenergy Centre — BSBEC — aims to use cutting-edge research to develop techniques for the production of alternatives to petrol and diesel from non-edible parts of food crops and other sustainable plant-derived sources. It is great news that BSBEC scientists at Nottingham have the opportunity to be housed in a new state-of-the-art facility that supports the excellent research they are doing.”
An ERDF grant of £2.7m has been provided through East Midlands Development Agency (emda), who are responsible for delivering the East Midlands 2007-13 ERDF Competitiveness Programme.
Stuart Creedy, Head of ERDF at emda, said: “We are happy to be supporting this project through the East Midlands 2007-13 ERDF Competitiveness Programme. The Programme supports innovative and fledgling businesses. This unique facility will support much needed research and development that will benefit small and medium sized businesses in the food and drink industry — a priority sector for the East Midlands.”
A £2m brewing research facility is being built and operated by SABMiller — one of the world's largest brewing companies. The 1,000 litre plant will be one of the largest micro-breweries at any university in the world and is due to open its doors in 2011. It will be used to research new technologies for the brewing industry aimed at reducing the amount of energy required in the production process by optimising the fermentation process while maintaining beer quality.
SABMiller’s Group Chief Brewer, Professor Barry Axcell, said: “Traditionally, pilot breweries have been places where new brands are created and trialled, and they are almost always part of a larger, commercial brewery. However, this new facility is leading edge in a number of ways: by building it within the university we hope to be able to take advantage of the leading edge technologies being researched by the faculty here, and rather than new types of beer, it will be focused on developing expertise and procedures that will ensure SABMiller leads the industry in brewing innovation.”
The Bioenergy Centre has been designed by Nottingham based practice, maber architects, who have just completed the Nottingham Geospatial Building — a new satellite facility at The University of Nottingham Innovation Park on the Jubilee Campus. The company won a national design competition for the Bioenergy project in March 2009 in conjunction with mechanical and electrical consultants, Edmond Shipway and structural engineers Price & Myers.
The burial of a time capsule marked the start of construction and work should be complete March 2011.
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