University team aims to solve food-fuel conflict

Dec 10 2009 by Andrew Mernin, The Journal

Dr Ralebitso-Senior believes that, although anaerobic digestion is an established process already being used by some waste-to-energy companies, its full potential has not yet been realised in solving many of the problems associated with growing biofuel crops.

"We can produce most biofuels using crops – but the big issue is whether the land could be used for food instead. The loss of agricultural crops is a major issue.

"We call this the food-fuel conflict as the economic returns of growing crops for fuel are often higher and with more farmers choosing this option, foodstuffs inevitably become more expensive.

"Using anaerobic digestion is an alternative method which has considerable potential, but we still do not understand a lot about how it works. That is what we are investigating in the laboratory, seeking ways in which we can optimise and, therefore, exploit the process effectively.

Meanwhile, the potential of the research has attracted interest from Teesside’s Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) based at Wilton, which is supporting the PhD programme associated with this work.

For Dr Ralebitso-Senior, the external support is crucial. "The next stage after the PhD is developing a new bioreactor type at pilot-scale, but for the system to be viable we need an even larger capacity.

"We’re looking at it taking a number of years to go from laboratory to pilot to actual scale, with modifications and additional research along the way. The only way the project may be realised sooner is if we can integrate findings from other research teams in the region, then nationally and internationally."

The work is the latest phase in a career which has seen Dr Komang Ralebitso-Senior, an applied environmental molecular microbiologist, work all over the world, including Lesotho, South Africa, the Netherlands and Singapore.