The Great Yorkshire Show!

Last Tuesday was my day to man The Green Factory expo and represent SCY at the Great Yorkshire Show.

Joe Ross of the Research and Innovation Office, Mark Gronnow of Green Chemistry, Susan McColl of SCY and Hilda Coulsey along with many others from the University and two actors in camo (more later) helped make the 'Factory' exciting and engaging.

We had example plants outside including elephant grass, nettles, willow and beet. These along with the remote control tractors and the actors ambushing people (in the nicest way, of course!) helped to bring people into our lair. Once inside they were given an experience of what current technology around biorenewables can do; from making bioethanol from plants, to uses for the plant waste material for extracting valuable chemicals using microwave pyrolysis through to making plastics and the Artemisia Project run by the Centre for Novel Agricultural Projects (CNAP). Bishop Burton College, the National Non-Food Crops Centre (NNFC) and the Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA) were represented and really helped bring the exhibition to reality.

Personally, I was charged with explaining to all and sundry the process by which we currently make bioethanol and demonstrating a really nifty Meccano steam engine that was running on our supply of ethanol. We made mention of Brazil and it's astounding use of bioethanol for vehicular fuel as well as biodiesel from oil crops. We even had a special mincer for grinding and pressing the oil from Oilseed Rape seeds. Both these contraptions helped the imagination of all the kids (and adults) that visited with lots of people wanting to make oil from the seeds. We almost got enough for a short drive, unfortunately having 100 people intermittantly work on a large metal handle wasn't considered a sustainable fuel production mechanism by the funding agency.. Ah well, onto the next technology.

The public were very aware of the food versus fuel debate and a lot of good discussions were had. I sensed a general thinking that recognised that this was a technology of the future but that at the moment it was not considered viable. I've no doubt that continued technological development in all our universities will make it a viable option in the near future and fortunately most people seemed to agree. They were impressed by the other strands of plant use - we try to use all of the pig!

Both Green Chemistry and CNAP put on good stands with lots of thoughtful 'Ahhs' being heard when people realised just how much value could be recovered from what might have been considered waste when the food mountains were growing. It was inspiring that medicine, materials and useful chemicals could be extracted from plants.

It was a really good experience and reinforces what a good area the North is for technological innovation married to traditional agriculture. My hat goes out to the 9 year old who was fascinated by the exhibits and proudly declared that he wanted to be both a farmer and a scientist. Our work was done. See you all next year and watch this space for updates on our biorefinery project in collaboration with the University of York and FERA. Yorkshire is turning into a green space in a green space!