ADBA calls for £25m R&I funding from government to boost AD exports

As the Chancellor prepares his budget statement for Wednesday, the AD industry has called for him to recognise the global opportunity for UK companies and researchers in biogas, digestate and bioproducts.

In a policy paper to the Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC), ADBA has called on government to allocate at least £25 million of an increased innovation programme worth £500 million over the next five years.

To support this call, ADBA will use its sixth Research and Innovation Forum on 6-7 April in York to further develop the AD industry’s world-class academic base and to assess how this additional funding could best support the UK in becoming the market leader in anaerobic digestion and bioprocessing.

ADBA’s Chief Executive, Charlotte Morton, commented:

The potential export value of anaerobic digestion technology is over £2 billion per year for a decade, and yet UK exports are currently estimated at just £50 – £100 million.  

That is why we are calling on government to allocate £25 million of the increased innovation programme for demonstration projects, such as power-to-methane and digestate processing. Supporting such new technologies through industry could bring ways of sustaining the sector with reduced reliance on financial mechanisms, allowing AD to remain the most cost-effective method of producing home-grown green gas and electricity, and contributing to the UK’s 2020 renewable energy, recycling, decarbonisation, and climate change targets.

By using the relationship between research and industry at our R&I Forum at the University of York on 6-7 April to develop a strategy for how this additional funding could be best deployed, together industry and academia can encourage manufacturing and pave the way for the UK to become a world leader in anaerobic digestion.