Pollybell Farms and Flogas Britain have announced a strategic partnership to deliver low-carbon, high heat energy for the two million UK households and businesses that rely on off-grid liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
A statement from the two companies said the partnership will explore the production and distribution of renewable dimethyl ether (rDME), a replacement for fossil LPG.
This partnership has been advanced through RePeat, a £2.4 million research and development project led by Pollybell Farm in collaboration with Flogas Britain and the University of Lincoln.
RePeat has secured funding from the UK’s Department Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’s (Defra’s) Farming Innovation Programme, delivered in partnership with Innovate UK to investigate a new circular farming and fuel model that integrates food production, renewable energy and land-use change at the farm scale.
The project brings together already proven technologies and examines how English farmers can remain productive while responding to climate pressures, volatile markets, and the steady transition to a low-carbon economy.
Partnership
Geoff Mullett, business development manager for fuels at Flogas Britain, said: “This partnership with Pollybell is about starting from real-world challenges and solving them collaboratively.
“RePeat allows us to explore how renewable, farm-derived fuels like rDME could provide a credible, low-carbon alternative to LPG for rural homes and businesses.”
A key part of RePeat is the creation and development of an on farm rDME production facility, which will use farm-grown biomass as a feedstock.
James Brown, managing director of Pollybell Farm, said: “RePeat brings together farmers and industry, integrating technologies into a single farming system.”
The project will look at how renewable fuel production can sit alongside commercial farming, as well as capturing co-products like heat and CO2 are reused to support year-round food production.
According to Pollybell and Flogas, this project is to show how agriculture can play a direct role in supplying low-carbon fuels for rural and off-grid energy users.
The source of rDME obtained through the RePeat system creates an opportunity to produce a significant, negatively carbon intensity fuel.
