UK-Vietnam Workshop on Biofuels

19th April 2012

Professor Keith Waldron has attended a UK-Vietnam Workshop on Biofuels, sponsored by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the British Embassy. Vietnam is a centre of rice growing and production, and the waste rice straw from this could represent a significant source of biofuels. To help in exploiting this, BBSRC set up workshops in Hanoi that brought together UK experts with their counterparts in Vietnam.

Later in 2012, six Vietnamese early career researchers are to visit the UK, working in UK universities and institutes to get a first hand look at the cutting edge work on second generation biofuels. Co-ordinated by Prof Simon McQueen-Mason at the University of York, the scheme will see IFRĀ  host two of the early career researchers, who will among other things be able to use the new Steam Explosion Unit, opened last year, and help to develop approaches for turning waste materials from agriculture into biofuels.

The trip was funded by the BBSRC International Scientific Interchange Scheme (ISIS) that aims to help scientists add an international dimension to their BBSRC funded research by making and establishing new contacts with international counterparts.