Huge strides in helping SMEs take a leading role in Net Zero have been celebrated on the Humber.
The Festival of Green Innovation returned for a second year as an immersive experience within University of Hull’s technical incubation space dedicated to low carbon pioneers.
Aura Innovation Centre has now been supporting eco-entrepreneurs for five years from Bridgehead Business Park in Hessle, and the ambition is to do more and draw on further financial support from the likes of the Levelling Up Fund to accelerate achievement. It already proudly underlines support provided to 271 SMEs, helping create 175 jobs while bringing 269 services or products to market.
Read more: Entries are open for the Humber Renewables Awards 2022
Speaking to more than 100 delegates, Dr Louise Smith, director, said: “The Humber is one of the most vulnerable regions in the UK and will be at the forefront of the effects of climate change; more extreme weather events that we have now seen, more high temperatures, more low temperatures and flooding.
“The key is to be active, to take action now. Without action nothing will change. Aura Innovation Centre and sister organisations are all here to support SMEs to innovate. “Through innovation we are going to be more prepared and better at meeting Net Zero targets, and we need to do it together. Solo in silos is not going to work anymore, it is about doing it together.”
The importance of having such a structure to bring in capital to a key cause was flagged.
Lockdown measures saw last year’s inaugural event go online, and former Siemens chief executive Juergen Maier's words from 2021 preluded the event.
He was instrumental in bringing the offshore wind blade plant to Hull and called for those with skin in the game to make a stand to drive the agenda of Industry 4.0.
“We now need to have the confidence, and a lot of it is about leadership and vision, and it is up to civic leaders, national politicians and businesses - very importantly businesses - to help with that leadership, being confident about creating the fourth industrial revolution,” he said.
Dr Smith highlighted how findings from a huge SME survey conducted through the pandemic were now being developed into real actions, equipping the area with the skills to hit targets now enshrined in legislation.
And asked about the strides made as within Europe oil terminals are bombed as real environmental damage becomes a by-product of war, she said: “We cannot just sit back and say it is too big, too dofficult.
“Smith & Nephew is doing stuff, Reckitts is doing stuff, we are doing stuff - as University of Hull we have a massive estate and we have committed to being carbon neutral by 2027 - then we start looking at the harder stuff. Everyone can do something, and it is about getting that momentum going. We can do it in this region, we are amazing in this region - we innovate and we lead, but often we can get overlooked.”
SMEs in the driving seat on journey to Net Zero
From all-terrain EV workhorses to plant-based plastics and crop protection innovation, Aura is home to an array of developments closing in on commercialisation.
Festival of Green Innovation attendees were given interactive demonstrations of projects at various stages.
Floreon was founded by Shaun Chatterton, a hull-based distributor of cleaning and hygiene products.
It has developed technology to enhance plant-based plastic use in 3D printing from brittle limited uses to engineering-standard performance. Automotive and consumer markets are being pursued with examples encompassing toys, chargers and toothbrush heads, while lightweighting vehicles by substituting the likes of aluminium.
Andrew Gill, technical director, has been with the firm from the outset.
“Research started 10 years ago, our founder had a distribution company in Hull and became aware he was using a lot of plastic packaging, so he set out to find a more sustainable route, and reached out to InnovateUK,” he said.
“We’re now a technology company, we licence our technology, and we develop it here and launch products to be manufactured in the UK, France and China.
“We’re still at the proving stage, but we have deals and signed commitments in toys, electronics and horticultural projects.”
A team of six is ready to scale-up, working with corn and sugar cane.
Across the impressive laboratory hall and Pulse EV was showcasing its eTrack.
Launched by two Beverley businessmen, it is the evolution of a mini-tank pleasure ground ride business seen on beaches and at fairs.
Brendan Taylor, operations director, said: “We operated as a leisure business, providing mini-tanks to drive for private events and shows, and we did that for 10 years.
“The chassis is a 12-year-old design, then three or four years ago we were approached and asked if we could make it electric.
“We now want to provide off-road EV manufacturing locally in the Humber region. We don’t want to be importing off-road EVs, we shouldn’t need to. We are engineer-rich in Hull, we don’t need to go anywhere else.”
Parked at Aura, the duo are refining the prototype while receiving reports from an extreme test on a Texan paintball ranch where heat and cold have so far been no issue.
Attention is turning to estate and land management,utility support and agriculture.
“It is proven, we have a vehicle working in Texas, and over the last couple of years we have been developing the engine - the drivetrain - getting the right elements for the job. A lot of torque is needed to operate the tracks, so we’ve been putting all that together, and now we’re looking for investment.”
Principal researchers Dr Sarah Shaw and Linda Whicker are getting to grips with a cereal killer threatening the region’s crops - balck grass.
Delegates were asked to get their thinking caps on to solve the issue - which they are aiming to tackle with drones, lens and laser technology - concentrating labour and treatment and saving tonnes of crops.
The infestation is a £1 billion a year cost to farmers as it chokes 800,000 tonnes of cereal - or 50 per cent of the brewing capacity in the UK.
Five East Yorkshire farmers have been selected to work alongside, with the region’s arable land in need of protection..
“It is a massive headache for farmers,” Dr Shaw said, having joined the university from a Holderness landholding.
“We’re looking at technology, solutions involving drones to survey fields and identify infestations, and also alternative treatments. At present it is dealt with on a whole field basis, and that’s destroying good crops to get to the bad ones.”
EU-funded cross-discipline work is involving geography, geology, chemistry, IT, and robotics expertise to locate then clear with sophisticated stacking of chemicals in a targeted approach.
Carbon mapping of agriculture is another significant strand as power is ultimately put in the consumer’s hands to help in the race to net zero, before a legislative finish line may loom for many.
