Surrey spinout BiofuelAi wins flagship Manchester Prize with smarter green gas production to heat more homes

BiofuelAi, co-founded by Professor Michael Short from the University of Surrey, has developed an AI-powered decision support platform that transforms how biogas plant operators manage production.  

Where plants have historically relied on experience, know-how and intuition – adjusting inputs and monitoring slow-moving biological processes without reliable predictive tools – BiofuelAi’s platform gives operators a real-time picture of what is happening inside their digesters and what action will produce the best outcome.  

Pilot trials have demonstrated revenue increases of 6–10 per cent and profit improvements of 7–13 per cent per site, alongside a 28 per cent reduction in carbon emissions. 

The company is a spinout from Surrey’s AI4AD research project, and BiofuelAi has attracted more than £1.5m in research funding. The founding team – which includes Dr Benaissa Dekhici, Dr Rohit Murali and Dr Ruosi Zhang alongside Professor Short and Alan Beesley – combines over 40 years of modelling expertise with practical operational experience of the biogas industry. 

The Manchester Prize is a multi-million-pound challenge prize from the UK's Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, awarded annually for a decade to UK-led breakthroughs in artificial intelligence for public good. Designed to reward innovations that transform lives and cement the UK's position as a leader in AI, the prize is delivered by Challenge Works – part of UK innovation foundation Nesta.  

BiofuelAi’s platform works by combining mechanistic models, machine learning and hybrid approaches to create a digital twin of a biogas plant. This allows for simultaneous optimisation of short-term decisions – such as feeding recipes and storage management – and longer-term ones, including feedstock acquisition and digester health, while accounting for uncertainty in the biological process. 

BiofuelAi is currently onboarding three new sites with its solution and has signed a UK reseller agreement. Over five years, BiofuelAi projects its platform could deliver more than £500m in client value. By 2030, the company estimates its platform could mitigate 293,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year across the UK – the equivalent of heating 133,000 homes.  

Biogas – produced through anaerobic digestion, the breakdown of organic material such as agricultural waste, food waste and wastewater – is a significant and growing component of the UK’s renewable energy mix.  

BiofuelAi is based at the Surrey Technology Centre in Guildford and is currently expanding. The company welcomes approaches from biogas plant operators, industry partners and investors.