MEMBER PRESS RELEASE – The AI platform modernising Britain’s biogas industry wins £1 million Manchester Prize

MEMBER PRESS RELEASE – The AI platform modernising Britain’s biogas industry wins £1 million Manchester Prize

ADBA member BiofuelAi wins £1 million Manchester Prize for AI-powered technology that could reduce UK carbon emissions by 293,000 tonnes annually—the equivalent of avoiding emissions from heating more than 133,000 homes with natural gas.

The UK’s flagship award for artificial intelligence innovation recognises BiofuelAi’s technology, which enables biogas plants to make smarter operational decisions, increasing renewable energy production while reducing costs and carbon emissions.

Science Minister Lord Vallance said: “The technology BioFuelAi has built could supercharge our mission to power Britain with clean, affordable energy, helping green energy plants produce even more power and cut carbon emissions. And they are just getting started. The Manchester Prize was created to find exactly this kind of innovation. Not AI as an abstract idea, but something that delivers results.”

“This is British AI leadership in practice: world-class researchers tackling hard challenges and helping to build the industries of the future.”

The BiofuelAi platform gives operators the kind of predictive, data-driven decision support long standard in the petrochemical industry, but largely absent from renewable energy generation.

The company was born from a chance conversation about an England versus South Africa rugby match, which turned into a vision for the renewable energy sector.

Alan Beesley, CEO, had spent years watching biogas operators manage complex facilities through spreadsheets and intuition. Professor Michael Short, Chief Technology Officer of BiofuelAi and Professor of Process Systems Engineering at the University of Surrey, had seen advanced modelling transform industrial performance in petrochemicals. Together with Dr Benaissa Dekhici, Dr Rohit Murali and Dr Ruosi Zhang, the co-founding team’s combined expertise in AI, mathematical modelling, optimisation and commercial operations now underpins the platform.

Despite their different backgrounds, their shared conviction — that biogas operators deserved the highest quality of decision support — was the foundation on which BiofuelAi was built.

“Green gas generation is more complex than traditional industrial processes, yet they often operate with far less predictive capability,” said Professor Short. “The opportunity was to apply a whole-systems approach and give operators the same quality of decision support that has existed in other process industries for years.”

The challenge can be illustrated with something as ordinary as an orange peel. Every day, food waste, agricultural residues and wastewater enter anaerobic digestion facilities, where biological processes convert organic material into renewable gas and electricity. Unlike many other industrial systems, the impact of what goes in may not become visible for days or weeks, long after the decision to add it was made.

With feedstocks varying and biological conditions constantly changing, operators must make consequential decisions with limited visibility into future outcomes.

BiofuelAi’s technology is built specifically for that complexity. Mechanistic models, machine learning, and optimisation algorithms combine to create a digital twin of each plant. This accounts for the conditions that make anaerobic digestion uniquely difficult to predict.

The software platform provides operators with continual insights into plant performance and predictive recommendations that support better operational decisions.

Alan Beesley, CEO and co-founder of BiofuelAi, said:  “The biogas industry remains one of the least data-driven sectors in energy. Facilities capable of generating heat and power for thousands of homes are still largely managed through spreadsheets and operator experience. We believed operators deserved better tools. Winning the Manchester Prize validates the work of an exceptional team and recognises the potential of AI to strengthen energy security, improve operational efficiency and accelerate decarbonisation.”

BiofuelAi is currently onboarding new commercial sites and expanding partnerships across the UK renewable energy sector.

ENDS

Notes to editors

• The Manchester Prize is awarded annually by the UK’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to breakthrough artificial intelligence innovations capable of delivering significant public benefit while reinforcing the UK’s position as a global leader in AI.
• Company Contacts:
  Alan Beesley, CEO – alan@biofuelai.co.uk
  Professor Michael Short, CTO – michael@biofuelai.co.ukWebsite: www.biofuelai.com