Biomass Energy

Biomass energy is energy derived either from natural organic resources, or from fuels manufactured from these resources, which include wood, energy crops and organic wastes. Biofuels, if used on a mass scale to displace the use of fossil fuels, could lead to significant reductions in overall greenhouse gas emissions.

However, in order for biomass fuels to be utilised on a mass scale, production costs have to be lowered and major changes in the way agricultural land is used would have to be made. Organic waste streams provides a cheap source of biomass, but require innovative solutions to harness their energy, that can cope with the variations in quantity and quality typical of organic waste.

C-Tech Innovation is involved in researching microbial processes for conversion of biomass into biofuels. In particular we are developing thermal pre-treatment processes and electrochemical downstream processes which enhance the efficiency of these microbial processes. C-Tech’s technologies have already been successfully investigated on processes producing biofuels like hydrogen, methane and butanol from biomass.