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HomeDepartment of BiologyResearch and impactCentre of Excellence for Anaerobic DigestionIndustrial Bioresource Engineering

Industrial Bioresource Engineering

We are working closely with industrial partners to co-design and execute research that provides practical solutions that can be deployed at scale. AD is a widely utilised, large scale technology, with individual installations routinely processing hundreds of thousands of tonnes of material per year.

The solutions we develop need to have a practical and realistic route to deployment. To be cost-effective, most AD innovations need to make use of existing assets, further constraining design.

Operational envelopes, health and safety, and regulatory compliance are all critical considerations in waste treatment. We work with practitioners to eliminate impractical solutions early in our discussions when considering co-designed work.

In addition to research collaborations that may be funded under a variety of routes (including Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and other UKRI schemes), we have capacity within CEAD facilities to provide tailored consultancy and contract research services for AD trouble-shooting and horizon-scanning.

"CEAD’s capability to work in true partnership with industry and technology providers is an essential consideration. We have the capability to work with industry to identify, understand and mitigate, meaning value realisation is more likely."

Jon Brigg, Royal Society Entrepreneur in Residence.

Activities and partnerships

Yorkshire Water

Yorkshire Water (YW) and University of York have built CEAD as part of a long-term partnership, which is currently supported by a five-year BBSRC Prosperity Partnership award. Our partnership grew out of a long-term secondment of Professor James Chong into YW's Innovation Team, which was supported by a Royal Society Industry Fellowship and YW innovation funds. Prior to our Prosperity Partnership award, the team was supported through a YW Framework Agreement and an ongoing UKRI Knowledge Transfer Partnership, which facilitates the movement of knowledge and expertise between partners.

YW’s bioresources operation depends upon assets worth hundreds of millions of pounds and costs many tens of millions of pounds a year to operate, even accounting for the value of gas produced.  

It is also a heavily regulated operation.  Societal expectation is to reduce cost and improve environmental performance.  It is the aim of the partnership to achieve these goals by deriving greater value from manufactured products and consequentially reduce dependency upon fossil fuel in wider supply chains, and to reduce process emissions.  A long term research agenda has been developed to achieve these goals.

Croda

CEAD contributes to an EPSRC-funded Prosperity Partnership between Croda, University of Nottingham and Green Chemistry in York. Our role is to explore how novel, bio-based commodity chemicals being developed in the partnership biodegrade under anaerobic conditions, such as those found in AD.

A better understanding of anaerobic biodegradability is critical for minimising the environmental effects of new personal care products and pharmaceuticals.

National Research Council Canada

We work with the Bioprocess Engineering team within the Clean Energy Innovation Research Centre at Conseil National de Recherches, Canada (CNRC), to examine the effectiveness of new AD-related technologies that could be deployed at scale and/or in remote locations. Partner facilities include an Anaerobic bioprocessing pilot plant housing a 2,000 L CSTR.