Awards of £5m for new UK-Brazil joint projects in advanced biofuels and biorefinery research

A joint investment between UK’s BBSRC and the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) in Brazil has been made to support collaborations between UK and Brazilian scientists in advanced biofuels research.

The funding – £3.5 million (€3.9m) from BBSRC with equivalent funding of £1.5 million from FAPESP – has been awarded to two partnerships between the UK and Brazil that underpin integrated biorefinery approaches for the manufacture of advanced biofuels.

The successful projects will aim to address challenges including enzyme design and development, optimisation of feedstock attributes, and the development of novel fermentative organisms.

The investment further strengthens the partnership working between the UK and Brazil in biological research, building on both countries’ high quality science base and Brazil’s world-leading biofuels production programmes.

Brito Cruz, scientific director at the São Paulo Research Foundation said the grants address one of the most important challenges in bioenergy production today, namely the use of lignocellulosic material to produce valuable chemicals and liquid fuel.

The BBSRC-FAPESP projects are:

• Lignin valorization in cellulosic ethanol plants: biocatalytic conversion via ferulic acid to high value chemicals
  Timothy Bugg, University of Warwick, working with Fabio Squina, CNPEM
• An integrated approach to explore a novel paradigm for biofuel production from lignocellulosic feedstocks
  David Leak, University of Bath, working with Telma Franco, Unicamp