Category: <span>Publications</span>

BBNet Report on the State of UK Biorefining now available

The Biomass Biorefinery Network (BBNet) has launched its report on The State of UK Biorefining: Progress, Performance and Pathways for Growth. The report assesses the evolution, current status and future prospects of the UK biorefining sector. It draws on a decade of published literature (2014–2024), stakeholder engagement conducted in 2025, …

Water Biofilms WG  –  a new paper and future plans

More good science, good engineering, and good news coming out of the ongoing programme of work on slow sand filtration (SSF) by Dr Francis Hassard and colleagues at Cranfield and Thames Water. The latest paper on their new underwater cleaning technique reports improved removal of Cryptosporidium oocysts in comparison with …

BES WG Lead’s Green Futures fellowship – and updated WG report

Congratulations to Dr Sharon Velasquez-Orta who has been awarded a Royal Academy of Engineering Green Futures Fellowship to work on a project entitled CHANGE: Carbon dioxide conversion by intensified electrobiocatalysis. The Fellowship is one of 13 In in a new programme funded by the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology …

New Nature Chemistry paper using quantitative LCA – and don’t miss the PISA WG Report

Congratulations to Prof Jhuma Sadhukhan and colleagues on a new paper that combines several areas of interest for EBNet members, including microbial H2 production, utilisation of waste feedstocks to generate high-value products, and tools for sustainability assessment. The paper, published in Nature Chemistry, demonstrates a novel strategy for coupling cogenerated …

Our final Green Stories picks – January 2026

The final set of stories chosen from our Green Stories: Microbes to the Rescue anthology, equivalent to about 30 mins in the Audiobook version. The anthology is also available as a free eBook on the Resources page. This month’s selections are: Chapter 10:  Microworlds by Griffen Alexander, South Africa – an …

AG WG working with industry on sludge characterisation studies

Dr Yongqiang Liu and colleagues in the Aerobic Granulation Processes WG have been working with water companies to take samples of granular sludge and conventional activated sludge (AS) from full-scale wastewater treatment plants in the UK. One aim of the study is to investigate the performance of granular sludge in …

ELEMENTAL Blog post – Biofilms to boost bioremediation

The ELEMENTAL Hub has launched a Blog site with posts covering project updates, research breakthroughs, and insights from across the partnership. The first post is on the theme Researching the biology of bacterial biofilms to boost bioremediation.  Dr Heather Felgate of the Quadram Institute shares some thoughts on her work …

IEA on sustainable (bio)fuels – new report on delivery and assessment

A recent report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) on Delivering Sustainable Fuels: Pathways to 2035 highlights the benefits to the energy sector and to wider economic and environmental sustainability. Liquid biofuels, biogases, low-emissions hydrogen and hydrogen-based fuels enable and support the energy transition. They are particularly important for sectors …

DESNZ RBP Workshop – Summary Report available now

In 2025 EBNet sponsored a workshop on measurement of residual biogas production (RBP) as a possible tool for estimating potential methane emissions from digestate storage. The workshop contributes to an ongoing programme of work by the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) on Methane Emissions from AD, which …

Green H2 and bio-based value chains – IEA Report

IEA Bioenergy has published an Inter-Task report on Synergies of green hydrogen and biobased value chains deployment (see here for accompanying blog).  An associated webinar is available here. Dr Luca Alibardi of Cranfield University, co-Lead of EBNet’s Anaerobic Fermentation WG, welcomed the report with the following comment: “The case study targeted a carbohydrate-rich wastewater, …

EnviroPiNet – a framework for biofilter performance prediction

There has recently been a strong and very welcome resurgence of interest in biofilters as a powerful and sustainable water treatment technology. Examples include outputs from EBNet’s Water Biofilms WG, and funding awards for the SandSCAPE project and for the EPSRC Network+ Better Water 4 All, as well as ongoing …

What is Environmental Biotechnology? A Venn diagram approach

Another post picking out what we hope are some interesting points from the recent paper on ‘What is Environmental Biotechnology?’. The motive is in part that it’s very long, and we don’t believe many people will persevere through the whole thing: one reader kindly but accurately compared the literature review …