The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has provided €3 million in funding to two universities as part of an anaerobic digestion (AD) and ‘green biorefining’ development.
The funding has been jointly awarded to University College Dublin (UCD) and Munster Technological University (MTU) for further development of climate neutral farming, as part of the Farm Zero C research project being undertaken on the Shinagh Estates Demonstration Farm in Co. Cork.
Commenting on the funding, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue said: “The trend for reduction in emissions [in agriculture] needs to be sustained and accelerated, which will be done through, and supported by, government policy.
“This funding will be used to create an integrated anaerobic digestion and grass biorefinery demonstration unit, which will demonstrate the potential to displace off-farm emissions through green biorefinery.”
The minister added that the project will support the transition to alternative land uses through anaerobic digestion as a diversification option.
Minister of State Martin Heydon, who has responsibility for research and development, commented: “There is a clear need to enhance the sector’s contribution to climate action across the food production system.”
This, Minister Heydon said, would be achieved through climate change mitigation and resilience; supporting local energy security; and through the development of high value bioeconomy opportunities.
“Increasing the volume of home-grown proteins to support our livestock, and biobased fertilisers to support agriculture more broadly, is also a key objective.”
The Farm Zero C project on the Shinagh Estates Demonstration Farm is co-led by the BiOrbic national bioeconomy research centre based at UCD, and dairy business Carbery Group. The aim of the project is to become an economically viable and climate neutral dairy farm.
According to the project organisers, the development of the new AD and green biorefining demonstration facility “offers the opportunity for the project to demonstrate climate action and diversification opportunities through the development of renewable energy sources”.
James Gaffey, the co-director of the CircBio research project at MTU, said: “We have been leading research on grass biorefinery in close collaboration with UCD, Carbery, and other partners over several years, and this work has shown enourmous potential for this model to improve the sustainability and value of grass.
“Given Ireland’s abundance of grassland, the grass biorefinery model represents a replicable model for bioeconomy development in Ireland, improving feed and energy resilience, while bringing new sustainable high-value products to the market,” Gaffey added.