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The group is internationally recognised for its work on anaerobic digestion, both as a means of stabilising wastes and for production of renewable energy. The focus has now expanded to new biotechnology and biorefinery applications. Research is carried out at national level and also in the context of European policy, through coordination of multidisciplinary UK and EU projects.

The group's work on food waste digestion has been pivotal to its successful implementation in the UK, where it is now part of the Government's waste management and renewable energy strategy. Group members were involved in the earliest trials using source segregated material as digester feedstock, and carried out the research monitoring on the first full-scale digester. Recent work has provided the rapidly growing industrial sector with operational protocols to improve biogas production and process stability. Work in this area has adpoted a whole systems approach making use of the group's expertise in digestion technologies and also in the energy blanace methods developed as part of a number of major projects (EPSRC SUE programme, FP6 CROPGEN, RELU AD4RD and FP7 VALORGAS).

New research challenges are also presenting themselves in carbon conversion, microbial fuel cells and algal biofuels. We are testing innovative approaches in the FP7 ALL-GAS project as part of the EU demonstration programme for algal biofuels production, and looking at biomethanisation of CO2 in the EPSRC-funded IB Catalyst programme. 

We also coordinate the BBSRC-funded Anaerobic Digestion Network - see www.anaerobicdigestion.com.

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