Brazilians Visit Local Company to Talk Biofuels
On 27 November, a Brazilian delegation of biofuel experts visited Scotland to attend an event organised by Scottish Development International (SDI) and Edinburgh Napier University’s Biofuel Research Centre. The scientists also made a point to visit one company during their visit: Roslin-based Ingenza, a biocatalyst and bioprocess development company.
The meeting’s aim was to help build relationships with key Brazilian representatives across government, industry and business agencies, following a successful SDI and UKTI biofuels mission to Brazil earlier in the year which initiated a number of potential collaborations.
Scotland is poised to learn valuable lessons from Brazil’s biofuels industry particularly regarding its experience of producing ethanol and the development path which has led to it becoming a global biofuel industry leader and a policy model for other countries.
While biofuels offer significant potential for sustainable transport, industrial production, electricity and heat, the industry in Europe continues to engender much debate around its economic, environmental and social impacts. Brazil is considered as have the world’s first sustainable biofuel economy and can help Scotland avoid and overcome some of these concerns.
Professor Martin Tangney, Director of Edinburgh Napier’s Biofuel Research Centre, said: “We are honoured to host such distinguished guests at Edinburgh Napier as part of the delegation’s visit to Scotland. The Biofuel Research Centre is driving the development of sustainable biofuels for Scotland. Brazil is the world leader in biofuel and meets over half of all its fuel requirements with biofuel. There is a huge amount that Brazil can teach us and this visit represents an important chance to establish valuable collaborations with both industry and academia.”
After the event, the Brazilian scientists visited Ingenza. The relationship between Brazilian biofuel experts and this small Scottish company originated with Dr Robert Speight’s visit to Brazil on the SDI and UKTI mission in October 2009.During that fact-finding trip, Dr Speight, Ingenza’s Operations Director, explored the biofuel industry and operations in Brazil including visits to EMBRAPA, BP Biofuels, Fermentec, and Petrobras, and he met several of the scientists driving the industry there, who were part of the delegation recently visiting Scotland.
The Brazilian group was interested in learning more about Ingenza, which has recently entered the field of biofuel research. Ingenza has expertise in developing novel biological processes to make chemical reactions deliver better results. They have long used this knowledge to work with pharmaceutical companies to produce specific drug molecules at high yields with great efficiency and are now turning that same expertise toward the production of biofuels. [if you want -- add 1 -2 more sentences on specifics of science/technology you are getting into with biofuels/links/similarities to what Brazil is doing...]
“This return visit by some of the scientists I met in Brazil has really served to cement our relationship as we continue to learn from each other. Their visit to our Ingenza headquarters has helped them learn what capabilities we have in this field. The meeting has really helped further the potential for future collaboration “ said Dr Speight.
The Brazilian delegation included representatives from some of the world’s leading biofuels companies, such as Petrobas – the oil and biofuels producer which is also the largest company in Latin America; UNICA – the Brazilian sugarcane industry association and Dedini – the largest supplier of plants and equipment for the sugar and alcohol sector.
This article originally published by Nexxus, www.nexxusscotland.com, the networking organisation for life scientists in central Scotland. For further information, please contact Sarah Graham, Ingenza Office & Marketing Manager at T: 0131-200-6355 E: sarah.graham@ingenza.com or visit www.ingenza.com.
For Scottish Development International, please visit www.sdi.co.uk and for the Edinburgh Napier University Centre for Biofuel Research, visit www.napier.ac.uk/randkt/rktcentres/bfrc