BEIJING, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) announced here Monday one of its most capable research institutions on energy has joined hands with the world's leading energy company British Petroleum (BP) to develop clean energy.

    The newly-built lab, part of a much bigger national lab on clean energy, will focus on developing new materials and techniques in producing biofuels, Zhang Tao, director of the CAS Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP), told Xinhua on Monday.

    According the cooperation agreement, BP will invest three million U.S. dollars for the first fund for opening the Energy Innovation Lab. In the coming two decades, BP promises to invest one million U.S. dollars each year into the lab.

    Key members of the BP China research team, led by Dr. Martin Atkins, will participate in the lab work at the DICP, Zhang said.

    Two months ago, DICP, BP and the Singapore-based Hyflux, Asia's leading water purification and fluid treatment company, signed to cooperate to develop a new kind zeolite membrane, which is expected to used for dewatering and purifying ethanol, a biofuel taken from plants.

    Such mineral membranes are the most competitive ones, at low cost and high efficiency, for producing ethanol in much better quality. A lot of companies in the developed economy are now enthusiastic about developing ethanol, methane and other biofuels. The total investment in the industry in 2006 was estimated at 18 billion U.S. dollars.

    In Nov. 2001, the DICP and BP launched collaborative research program, The Clean Energy: Facing the Future. Since then, the two sides have worked out innovative technologies, including building membranes separating hydrogen from mixed air, which is a substantive step for using pure hydrogen.