Carbon Trust’s Algae Biofuels Challenge

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The Carbon Trust’s multi-million pound initiative into algae to transport fuels*

As part of our Advanced Bioenergy Accelerator, the Carbon Trust intends to make a multi-million pound investment to support the development and commercialisation of microalgae biofuel technologies that have the potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Microalgae can be cultivated and manipulated to produce high yields of oil that can be used as a feedstock for further refining into transport oil. The potential biomass yield of microalgae is vast compared to conventional agricultural biofuel feedstocks and it has few of their negative impacts (it does not require arable land or freshwater and does not compete with commodity food crops). Therefore, the production of microalgae biofuels at scale would represent a disruptive technological breakthrough. However, many challenges remain to make low cost algae biofuels a commercial reality.

Following an extensive programme of work over the last year, analysing the algae biofuel opportunity and developing an appropriate R&D investment strategy to overcome these challenges, the Carbon Trust intends to fund R&D into microalgae derived transport fuels through the Algae Biofuels Challenge, ABC.

The ABC is a two phase programme with the first phase addressing fundamental R&D challenges and the second phase moving to large scale production of algal oil. The total programme cost is expected to be in the region of £20m-30m, with up to £10m-16m of Carbon Trust funding. Further details about the two phases of the ABC can be downloaded using the links on the right hand side of this page.

The call for proposals for Phase 1 of the ABC opened on the 23rd October 2008 and closes on 15th December 2008. To accompany the launch of the ABC, we will be holding a launch event on the afternoon and evening of Thursday 30th October in London.
The launch event will be used to explain our strategy for the Algae Biofuels Challenge and will provide facilitated opportunities for networking and an evening drinks reception. The networking opportunities will be designed to provide a forum for attendees to generate inter-disciplinary and inter-organisational collaborations to deliver the requirements of the Algae Biofuels Challenge. The event will also provide you with the opportunity to discuss the call for EoIs with members of the Carbon Trust research and development management team who will be on hand to address any questions you may have related to your own plans.

In order to register for the event, please complete our registration form and return it by email to events_team@carbontrust.co.uk. If you have questions about the event, please email the same address, or call us on 0845 136 0103. Otherwise, for more general information about our bioenergy activities, or to be added to our interest list to receive regular updates and announcements about the Algae Biofuels Challenge, please email us at pipeline@carbontrust.co.uk.

Source page @ Carbon Trust, UK

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