Mr. P.J. McCarthy:

We are highlighting that biomethane is one aspect, an output and by-product of the biorefinery. Pursuing the cascading principles, where you have those by-products or resource streams such as spent grain and other industrial residues or sludges, involves pursuing the maximum value of what can be extracted. We have some fantastic academic centres of excellence with University College Dublin, UCD, University College Cork, UCC, MaREI, and the National University of Ireland, Galway, NUIG. We are currently engaging with industry, for example on Project Clover, and asking what by-products or bioproducts is it looking for. We have very strong, healthy biopharma, biochemicals and food industries. For example, biogenic CO2 is an additional revenue stream. It is important that anybody embarking in this industry understands that the commercial responsibility and duty is to maximise and valorise every revenue stream possible with the principle of getting higher value products. It is not just about biomethane, biofertiliser or carbon farming; it is about protein extraction, biogenic CO2, bioactives and biostimulants. Very clearly, there are opportunities to engage directly with industry. Before we pursue on the industry at scale, we should engage, find out and establish from it exactly what products it is looking for on the market. Rather than going out and looking and creating a market, we have the technologies and expertise to extract those valuable bioproducts and give them to industry, such as bioplastics. Mr. Prendergast is working on a project here with BioWILL. They are looking at the by-product as an alternative for packaging, for example. Rather than boxing ourselves into one particular by-product, we need to be looking at everything. It is building an industry within an industry that supports our national bioeconomy.