National Industrial Biotechnology Facility (NIBF)

The National Industrial Biotechnology Facility (NIBF) is based at the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) Wilton, Redcar, England. The facility allows firms to replace traditional chemical processing techniques with green, environmentally friendly methods through Industrial Biotechnology.

Owned and operated by CPI, the NIBF houses an open access trial and development centre intended for use by businesses during the testing stage of chemical production before investment. Further activity includes the development of biorefineries which use specially grown crops or waste material to produce energy, fuel and heat as an alternative to burning fossil fuels.

The Facility was built in collaboration with the Centre of Excellence for Biocatalysis, Biotransformations and Biomanufacturing (CoEBIO3), three regional development agencies One NorthEast, Yorkshire Forward and Northwest Development Agency via The Northern Way and Thermal Transfer with support from other companies and institutions.

An extension of the facility is currently underway, expected for completion by the end of 2010. The Innovation and Growth Team in Industrial Biotechnology recommended creation of an Industrial Biotechnology Demonstrator working up to ten-tonne scale and that it should be built at CPI as an open access demonstrator facility.

The demonstrator is for fermentation up to 10 tonne capacity, with associated upstream and downstream facilities. The demonstrator will stimulate the use of Industrial Biotechnology to develop and demonstrate processes delivering viable products. The Facility will be tailored to the production of fuels, high volume platform chemicals, and low volume specialty and higher value chemicals using renewable feed stocks such as biomass and waste. It will also integrate chemical processing together with bioprocessing.

References

http://www.coebio3.org/

http://www.uk-cpi.com/nibf