Irish Government announces investment for green biorefining demonstration initiative
In Ireland, Minister for Agriculture, Food, and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, and Minister of State with special responsibility for research and innovation, Martin Heydon, announced a $3.2 million investment in an integrated anaerobic digestion and green biorefining demonstration initiative. The funding has been jointly awarded to University College Dublin (UCD) and Munster Technological University (MTU) for the further development of climate neutral farming as part of the Farm Zero Carbon research project currently being undertaken on the Shinagh Estates Demonstration Farm in West Cork. “The funding I am announcing today demonstrates government support for the development and demonstration of such technology. It will be used to create an integrated anaerobic digestion and grass biorefinery unit, which will demonstrate the potential to produce local sources of feed and biobased fertilizer with enhanced environmental benefits. This will also show the ability of such technologies to displace emissions from imported feed and fertilizer and offer diversification opportunities for farmers and the agri-food sector,” said McConalogue. “The Farm Zero C project hosted by BiOrbic, Bioeconomy SFI Research Centre is delighted to receive funding from DAFM to deploy on-farm grass biorefining and anaerobic digestion facilities at Shinagh. Irish farmers produce high quality food, and this can be complemented with other revenue streams from anaerobic digestion and biorefining such as renewable energy, biobased materials, and bio-actives,” said Kevin O’Connor, BiOrbic Director and project co-lead.
Category: Policy
