Potential process 'hurdles' in the use of macroalgae as feedstock for biofuel production in the British Isles

This review examines the potential technical and energy balance hurdles in the production of seaweed biofuel, and particular for the MacroBioCrude processing pipeline for the sustainable manufacture of liquid hydrocarbon fuels from seaweed in the UK. The production of biofuel from seaweed is economically, energetically and technically challenging at scale. Any successful process appears to require both a method of preserving the seaweed for continuous feedstock availability and a method exploiting the entire biomass. Ensiling and gasification offer a potential solution to these two requirements. However there is need for more data particularly at a commercial scal

The role of standardization at the interface of product and process development in biotechnology

R&D stands for Research and Development and while research is essential for new product development in biotechnology, the development and its integration with research (the transfer from research to development) is underexplored. Without efficient and successful process development, biotech companies would not sustain in the long run as process development is a necessary condition en route to industrial commercialization. Based on qualitative interviews with 31 biotech companies and experts, we test a framework with technological, operational and organizational boundary conditions influencing the transfer between product and process development. Our results uncover two additional dimensions: relational and market determinants. We further identify uncertainties in the transfer and investigate if standardization can mitigate these uncertainties and eventually facilitate the integration of product and process development. We find that standardization is a beneficial mechan ism for successful integration of the front end of process development activities. The present investigation contributes to the understanding of standards as a knowledge and technology transfer instrument for complex and critical development activities