Algal Bioenergy Special Interest Group

What is the Algal Bioenergy Special Interest Group?

Renewable bioenergy can be obtained from algae but currently significant gaps exist in our understanding of the potential of this.

In order to fully understand the opportunities and risks to the quality of freshwater and marine environments of using algal biomass as a source of renewable energy, the Algal Bioenergy Special Interest Group has been established. The programme funds a Director, two research fellows and a knowledge exchange fellow.

Join the group: get engaged with the Algal group online here

See LWEC's story about the network

What will the group do?

The purpose of the group is to rapidly scope the environmental science potential in the area of algal bioenergy, and to build the research networks and secure the key partnerships needed to facilitate this.

Research currently exists on harvesting wild and cultivated algae; most research is at an early stage and so researchers will benefit from exchanging knowledge on the environmental implications of generating algal energy.

Research questions include

• Can marine biomass be harvested from wild or cultivated algae resources?
• Can land-based microalgae technology be transferred to freshwater and marine environments? 
• What are the positive and negative impacts of scaling-up production on the wider environment?  
• What are the potential problems of large-scale cultures or algal farming and harvesting on ecosystems? 

The goal is to understand the opportunities and risks to the quality of freshwater and marine environments of farming algae for diesel production.

Some of the secondary goals that could be developed in the future  include:

• Identifying the possible feed stocks and conversion technologies that may emerge over the next 10 years for deployment, including evaluation of micro versus macroalgae and freshwater versus marine.
• Assessing the environmental implications of imports of algal resources for bioenergy use. 
• Predicting the environmental consequences of the deployment of algae in the UK for bioenergy and other value-added co-products.

Expected outputs

The group will form an evidence base for decisions on growing algae for bioenergy.

This would include

• best algal feed stocks for the UK
• most appropriate locations and environmental implications of macroalgal production
• modelling the implications of scaling up microalgae production on the environment.

This will enable early evaluation of the environmental and economic impact of algal energy through development of a sustainability framework using related work developed for terrestrial bioenergy.

Who will benefit?

Commerical opportunities

The group will ensure close engagement with technological developments in this area.

PROGRAMME FACTS AND FIGURES

Start and end dates: 2010 to 2013
Project website: http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/programmes/algal

Contact: Director michele.stanley@biosciencektn.com

Jan 2011: Dr Michele Stanley has been appointed as Director to lead the algal bioenergy special interest group network, hosted by the Technology Strategy Board Biosciences Knowledge Transfer Network.