Industrial Demonstrator facility ‘will be world beater’
Mar 12 2010 by Chris Knox, The Journal
WORK has begun on a ground breaking bio-technology testing centre planned to make the region a world centre for science-based industry.
Business minister Ian Lucas officially launched the construction of the Industrial Demonstrator facility, which is set to play a key part in developing sustainable manufacturing processes and green energy sources.
The Redcar centre, backed by £12m of Government funding, builds on work already carried out at Wilton by the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) and is expected to create 15 jobs once it is built, an help to create hundreds more indirectly in the international science community.
The first centre of its kind in the UK will be completed by the end of the year to give burgeoning science and technology firms the chance to test out their products without the need for huge investment.
The CPI yesterday also revealed it had won an extra £1m of funding from the The Department of Energy and Climate Change to build a facility for the development of anaerobic digestion technology.
Anaerobic digestion, which turns organic waste into gas to create electricity, is now becoming more mainstream in parts of Europe and has led to the creation of a number of businesses in the North East, including Anaerobic Energy Ltd, a CPI spin-out company already based at Wilton.
The Business Minister also toured the Printable Electronics Technology Centre (PETEC) facilities at Wilton, which also has a facility based at Sedgefield developing world-leading flexible electronics technology.
He said that 19 projects across the country will share £2.5m worth of funding to develop products and ideas at the facility.
He said: “I have never seen anything like this anywhere else in the world. The technologies and process being developed here in Wilton are absolutely mind-blowing.
“The Government fully recognises the crucial role that the UK’s manufacturing base will play in growing our economy. Here in the North East the regional strengths in industrial biotechnology, plastic electronics and advanced manufacturing will help the UK achieve its goal of economic growth and a low carbon economy.”
