New centre to develop biofuels project launched

PLANS for a £27million government research centre to develop an alternative fuel from plants have been unveiled.

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council project will be based at leading universities around the UK. Announced today by the Minister of State for Science and Innovation, Lord Drayson, it is the biggest single UK public investment in bioenergy research.

Supporters say sustainable bioenergy offers the potential to provide a significant source of clean, low-carbon energy. It uses non-food crops, such as willow, industrial and agricultural waste products and inedible parts of crops, such as straw, and so does not take products out of the food chain.

Lord Drayson, who last year took time out from government to race a biofuel-powered car in the American Le Mans series, said: "The centre is exactly the sort of initiative this country needs to lead the way in transforming the exciting potential of sustainable biofuels into a widespread technology that can replace fossil fuels."

The project will have six research units, based at the universities of Cambridge, Dundee and York and Rothamsted Research and two at Nottingham.