Bio-propane spinout seeks industrial partners

C3 Biotechnologies, a spinout of Manchester University, has been launched to develop technologies which uses synthetic biology to produce propane.

The UK-based company is seeking commercial partners to help it develop a full scale production facility for bio-propane, which C3 said would be economically sustainable.

Michael Smith, director at C3 Bio-Technologies, said: “This cutting-edge process has the potential to revolutionise the production of bio-fuel, forgoing the environmental issues associated with extracting fuel from non-renewable sources and drastically reducing the transport costs and carbon emissions associated with production. Similarly, bio-propane is a versatile, high-density energy source that does not increase the mass of carbon released into the environment as a consequence of using conventional combustion processes, because the carbon cycle is a fully closed loop.

“The benefits of fossil fuel-based LPG (liquid petroleum gas) are already proven within the world energy market and a robust, reliable distribution infrastructure exists, which will enable the new volumes of bio-propane to be introduced to the market without significant change or investment from both local suppliers and consumers.”