Micrograss project
05 June 2009
An ambitious and challenging energy research project at LJMU has received €2.5m in European research funding.
The RF and Microwave Group (RFM) in the General Engineering Research Institute at LJMU, the main research and development provider to a consortium of 6 national and international industrial partners, have been awarded a lucrative European research fund of €2.5m to undertake a challenging research project in the production of bio-ethanol from grass.
The transportation infrastructure that underpins today’s economy is vulnerable, due in part to its high dependency on a limited and unevenly distributed single fuel source, with the most important reserves in politically unstable regions. In addition the transport sector stands for a large part of the emissions of greenhouse gases in the world, as this sector accounts for more than half of the world’s total oil consumption. The transport sector has been considered to be the main reason for the EU failing to meet the Kyoto targets.
Professor Ahmed Al-Shamma’a, Head of the RFM group, commented: “Our technology developments meet a key technological need in the European SME bio-fuel sector and provides SME farmers with a use for non-profitable, poor soil.”
“The Micrograss project will provide an efficient, fast and no energy intensive technology for the breakdown of cellulosic biomass into sugars for the production of ethanol. This technology will allow the European Union to satisfy the growing demand for bio-fuels without conflicting with food production, giving the farming community a product that can be grown in poor soil which will generate additional income for them.”
By increasing the production of bio-fuels it is hoped the Micrograss project will tackle climate change by decreasing green house gas emissions from transport, enhance fuel security and respond to rising high oil prices by substituting or blending petrol or diesel with ethanol.
