In this issue... Issue 8: SUMMER 2012

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1 1 Issue 8: SUMMER 2012 In this issue... 1 Welcome 2 Socio-economics of seaweed biofuel 3 New bioethanol company formed 4 The Crown Estate s seaweed pilot 5 BioMara resource for teachers 6 About BioMara Welcome by Dr Michele Stanley, Project co-ordinator BioMara is entering its final stages and this will be our last project newsletter. We are all still very busy and will continue to be so until BioMara ends in December. Our collaborations with companies and public organisations interested in using the findings of the project are starting to generate results. This newsletter has an article from Bob Irving, Sustainable Project Partners Limited, interested in the production of bioethanol from seaweed. One of our funders, The Crown Estate, also outlines its plans for a Commercial Pilot Scale Seaweed Farm. As the saying goes all good things come to an end, but hopefully the results of the BioMara project will continue to be used for many years.

2 Seaweed as an energy source: Estimating the social and economic impacts by Dr Kristinn Hermannsson, Fraser of Allander Institute, University of Strathclyde Biomass is already widely used as a low-carbon source of energy with a range of bioenergy options in use across Europe. This includes everything from traditional sources such as heat from wood-burning stoves to crop-based biofuels and biogas plants using household and farm waste. One of the main drawbacks of many bioenergy sources is that the energy crops displace alternative land use, such as for food production. Seaweed has been suggested as a source of next generation bioenergy to address these concerns. It is harvested and cultivated on a commercial scale in several countries across the world but in most coastal areas it is relatively underexploited and therefore offers significant potential. The BioMara project addresses these issues by researching how seaweed can be harnessed for energy. Ultimately the innovations and advances resulting from scientific work impact on society and the economy. As part of this project, the Fraser of Allander Institute at the University of Strathclyde is estimating the economic and social impacts of using marine biomass as a source of bioenergy. This research focusses primarily on the production of biogas through the anaerobic digestion of seaweed. This is a well understood technology and existing evidence suggests it could be a feasible method of production. Even if other technologies are adopted, the impact on the wider economy is likely to be similar. A study of the feasibility and potential of bioenergy from seaweed for the Western Isles has been undertaken. This involved estimating the viability and capacity of biogas production from seaweed. Based on sustainable harvesting of wild seaweed this could provide enough power to supply electricity to 2000 homes in the Western Isles, or just under 20% of all homes in the community. Capacity could be increased through cultivation of seaweed. Although cultivation would be more expensive the benefits of higher yields could outweigh this. An additional benefit would be the removal of excess nutrients from the sea, such as those produced around fish farms and in agricultural areas. To investigate the impact of a new bioenergy sector on its host economy an economic model is used to track the impacts of the introduction of local energy production. This allows not only an estimate of the direct economic impacts of bioenergy, but also of the knock-on impacts on other sectors. These knock-on impacts can be positive, but need not be uniformly so. The stylised impacts of a new seaweed-energy sector on the local island economy occur in several stages. First, locally produced bioenergy would displace imports of energy. The money that previously leaked out of the local economy would be injected into the new bioenergy sector. This would create employment and stimulate other parts of the economy as the bioenergy sector purchased goods and services from other firms and new or more workers had greater spending power. However, this may not translate into as big an economy-wide impact as could be expected. For example if the labour market is tight, the net effect could be that the new bioenergy sector simply poaches workers from other sectors in the local area. This could curtail the output of the sectors that lost workers and reduce the net impact of the new bioenergy sector. This is just one example of the possible outcome, so a framework has been developed to address a range of scenarios. As part of the BioMara project, simulation models have been calibrated for several localities, including Northern Ireland, Scotland and the Western Isles. These models have been tested using a range of scenarios to simulate the potential impacts on these communities informed by feasibility studies, background research, findings of other researchers within the BioMara project and consultation with local stakeholders. The research has identified that, as a standalone commercial venture, using seaweed for energy generation is marginal at current energy prices. It may, however, offer significant social and economic benefits. In areas where importing energy is expensive and some of the necessary infrastructure is already in place, it may become a highly desirable venture and some of the issues that the BioMara project is addressing may be tested in reality in the not too distant future. Diagram courtesy of our partners at the University of Ulster. E: kristinn.hermannsson@strath.ac.uk 2

3 Producing bioethanol from seaweed near Oban by Bob Irving, Sustainable Project Partners Limited Sustainable Project Partners Limited (SPP) is a company formed in Scotland to develop the potential for production of denatured industrial bioethanol manufactured mainly from seaweed. As the initial Managing Director I bring over 25 years of experience with biotechnology developments from Canada and Australia, recently as Chief Operating Officer of Nanotechnology Victoria and the licensing vehicle, NanoVentures Australia, responsible for creating, coordinating and managing the $32 million State Government commercialisation investment vehicle. Coming from Australia, I am excited to be based in Oban with responsibility for start-up and early stage development of our venture. The product we seek to produce will be used for transportation fuel and petrol additive or extender. Our first project is now in operation from a base in the Marine Resource Centre (MRC) at Barcaldine, close to the Scottish Marine Institute at Dunstaffnage, where we are developing and refining our methods through a Research and Development programme that we expect to continue for at least the next year. Our scientists are collaborating with personnel at the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) and, particularly, with scientists involved in the BioMara programme. Eventually we will establish commercial production in Barcaldine and then move on to develop other suitable sites. The MRC will be our technical support base for these developments and we will be seeking continuing collaboration with partners in BioMara. SPP is re-commissioning operational space at the MRC for storage, pre-treatment and processing of kelp leading to fermentation and distillation to initially produce, during the R & D phase, a total of 30,000 litres of bioethanol, thereafter to establish regular production of 30,000 litres per month from the production infrastructure. Our longer-term plan is to repeat this initial biofuel production model with a modular approach in appropriate areas of the Highlands & Islands and other regions and, eventually, globally. SPP will be applying aspects of the well-known sugar/ cellulose to ethanol processes as well as proprietary technologies from sister companies in Australia. The stages of this process involve biomass (primarily seaweeds and supplementary organic material provided by others) locally prepared and processed to biofuel in production units sized to meet local demand for blending. SPP s market vision is to become the leading supplier of sustainable bioethanol for transport fuel exploiting higher production to resource ratios than possible from traditional agricultural crops. To achieve this, we hope to help support and encourage an emerging large-scale seaweed aquaculture industry in Scotland. 3

4 The Crown Estate s Commercial Pilot for large scale off-shore seaweed cultivation by Alex Adrian, The Crown Estate Marine biomass in the form of cultivated macro-algae, or seaweed, is the 9th business sector of our Marine Estate. The Crown Estate s ( TCE ) ambition is to investigate and ideally demonstrate the commercial viability for largescale off-shore cultivation of seaweeds for chiefly energy but also quite possibly chemical feedstock purposes. The wider rationale for such a business includes the potential for a positive contribution to the UK s low-carbon economy from bio-energy, and an alternative source of raw materials for industries, as part of a sustainable exploitation of the marine environment that will serve also to relieve pressure for such raw materials as land and freshwater. One of the key elements to the significance of any such contribution will be production at an economically viable scale. In light of the volumes required to make a significant difference to our energy economy this is likely to be offshore with thousands of square km of seabed utilised. To further this ambition, TCE embarked on two courses of action. One was to set up a UK Macro-algae Forum that could serve as a means of drawing disparate strands of interest in this sector together for networking, information exchange and dissemination. The Forum meets twice a year with presentations and updates on TCE work and that of other - chiefly commercial or applied research - interests. The second was to set up the Macro-algae Commercial Pilot to investigate the practical issues of largescale cultivation and production. This commercial pilot incorporates several studies, including the projected environmental effects and carbon budgeting of such production. However the first and possibly most significant to date was to examine the processes to which macro-algae could be subjected and the products that could be derived from them. This concentrated on the options for high volumes, and therefore energy and fine chemical products. The much smaller current niche markets for food and some pharma-/nutra-ceutical products were not addressed as it is likely that these would be catered for by a differently scaled and located production system. commercial viability of particular energy-generation activities utilising cultivated seaweed - a practical supply chain logistics project should be set up. This project should establish whether such production costs were indeed achievable or at least feasible if cultivation was appropriately scaled, and what systems and methods would lend themselves to this at the scale and locations envisaged. This recommendation has now manifested itself as the Macro-algae Supply Chain Project ( MSCP ). A MSCP steering group comprising TCE and another four marine businesses with expertise in the necessary disciplines was constituted in October 2011, and Phase 1 of the project the design and costing of trial systems together with seeding trials and a projected production plan - was completed in May. A Marine Licence application has been submitted for the proposed installation at a location in the Lynn of Lorn in Argyll, and approval is now awaited from both Marine Scotland s licensing team and our own business directors to proceed to the installation and implementation phase. A report on behalf of the Crown Estate Report: December 2011 The Centre for Process Innovation Product Options for the Processing of Marine Macro Algae Summary Report The Processes & Products investigation reported at the end of last year and is available to read at from_marine_macro-algae_2011.pdf Without going into its detailed conclusions here, certain energy products showed commercial promise. One of the report s recommendations was that - further to the delivered factory gate cost figures it provided for projected Compiled by Dr. J J Lewis 4

5 BioMara teaching materials for schools to be launched by Dr Paul MacArtain and Anna-Marie Sherry, Dundalk Institute of Technology BioMara Teaching Materials- Energy from Marine Algae BioMara will publish a new teaching resource pack for primary school teachers which will introduce pupils in the age range from 8-12 years old to Algeena and Mike who will help them explore the wonders of marine macro- and micro-algae. The main purpose of the resource is to create awareness of how energy can be produced from algae. The resource pack consists of six lesson plans, each consisting of a content section providing the background knowledge for the teacher and an activity section with written, pictorial, interactive and experimental activities for the pupils. Learning outcomes are clearly introduced and assessed by the final activity. Answer sheets are included. The Irish, Northern Irish and Scottish school curriculums have been used in the design of the activity section. These materials will be presented in a ring binder for ease of access for teachers and will be distributed in the first term of the academic year to schools in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Western Scotland. Further information from annamarie.sherry@dkit.ie Some BioMara outreach impressions... Top far left: Children from Dundalk Primary School are watching a CD made about algae and biofuels put together by the BioMara Education Officer. Top left: Three BioMara scientists contribute to teaching about renewable energy and algal biofuel using the Scottish online intranet community for Scottish Schools (GLOW). GLOW allows many schools to participate either in real time or to access resources at a later date. Bottom far left: At the 2010 SAMS open day the BioMara team demonstrates the growth potential of algae by measuring children - here three with a pooled age of 20 - against a six-month-old kelp. Bottom left: A Brownies group explores micro-algae at the Festival of the Sea 2012 for Oban, Lorn and the Isles. 5

6 About BioMara The BioMara partnership The Sustainable fuels from Marine Biomass (BioMara) project is a four year UK and Irish joint research initiative examining the feasibility and viability of producing third generation biofuels from marine biomass. It is investigating the use of algae as an alternative to terrestial agri-fuel, examining the practicality of using these aquatic plants as a competitive, sustainable biofuel source. BioMara is engaging widely with stakeholders and incorporating environmental impacts of algal cultivation and extraction as core considerations of the project. Celebrating BioMara The BioMara project reaches its official end on 31 December To showcase and celebrate the research undertaken by the BioMara project, we will hold an official end of project meeting on 15 November 2012 in the Scottish Parliament from 18:00 onwards. The meeting will be hosted by Murdo Fraser MSP, Convener of the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee in the Scottish Parliament. Please note that participation at this event must be pre-booked. If you would like to attend this meeting, please contact biomara@sams.ac.uk Contact Co-ordination biomara@sams.ac.uk Technical michele.stanley@sams.ac.uk Stakeholders ian.macfarlane@sams.ac.uk Funders of the BioMara project 6