FRUIT and veg may be good for you but, in 10 years’ time, we could be replacing fossil fuels and helping to save our planet by using the inedible bits we throw away to run our cars, boats and planes.
The University of Nottingham is to lead the way in the development of sustainable bioenergy fuels – ethanol and butanol. These sustainable bioenergy fuels use non-food crops such as willow, industrial and agricultural waste products and inedible parts of crops such as straw, so do not take products out of the food chain.
The University of Nottingham is leading two of six research projects being run by the national BBSRC Sustainable Bioenergy Centre, the largest ever single UK public investment in bioenergy research.
Experts in microbiology and brewing science at Nottingham will be leading the two five-year research programmes.
One team is hoping to develop yeast capable of breaking down plant cell walls. Scientists will then be able to break down the inedible and unusable parts of plants such as the skin and stalks to produce ethanol.
Programme leader Professor Katherine Smart said: “Our fuel will be produced through materials which currently end up in landfill or simply go to waste. The challenge is to break down the toughest part of the plant, unlock the sugars and, by developing the very best yeast, find an extremely efficient way of converting these sugars into ethanol.”
The green tops of carrots, straw that is currently ploughed back into the ground, wood shavings, the husks from barley grains, even the stalks from grapes can be used to produce ethanol.
The bacteria that produce butanol belong to an ancient group of bacteria. Butanol has significant advantages over ethanol. It has a higher energy content, is easier to transport, can be blended with petrol at much higher concentrations and even has potential for use as an aviation fuel.
Nottingham’s Professor Nigel Minton said: “We really are focused on the holy grail of biofuel research – developing bacteria that are able to convert non-food, plant cell wall material into a superior petrol replacement, butanol.
“If you had asked me a couple of years ago, I would have said it was not possible.”