Biofuels research gets £27 million push

By Michael Kahn

LONDON (Reuters) - The government and 15 businesses including Royal Dutch Shell BP and SABMiller directed 27 million pounds on Tuesday for research on new biofuels that do not use up food.

It is Britain's biggest ever public investment in bioenergy.

The money will fund research at six centres around Britain with the goal of replacing petrol in cars with fuels derived from willow, straw and other non-food crops, government officials and scientists said.

Focussing on these plants along with industrial and agricultural waste -- such as unused corn husks -- offers the potential to provide a major source of clean, low carbon energy without using up farmland needed to produce food, they added.

"The challenge for biofuels is whether we can make the fuels sustainable and efficient enough," Science Minister Lord Paul Drayson told reporters.

"So in this sense this is a very smart investment and addressing a demand that is already there."

Biofuels are mainly produced from food crops such as wheat, maize, sugar cane and vegetable oils.

Advocates see them as a way to cut greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change but some environmental groups have argued they may worsen the problem by contributing to the destruction of rain forests.