Blog

Ben Lake, MP for Ceredigion, toured the BEACON pilot facilities today as part of a wider visit to IBERS, Gogerddan. Dr Judith Thornton, Low Carbon Manager, gave an overview of some recent collaborative projects with Welsh companies, demonstrating how BEACON is working to grow the...

With the pyrolysis rig out of action and currently awaiting repair, BEACON process engineer, Damon Hammond, has been using a mobile Exeter Retort to produce biochar. Fully transportable and mounted on a trailer, the Retort has been charring a variety of feedstocks with excellent...

The BEACON team were pleased to welcome the Taiwanese Ambassador David Yung-Lo Lin to the pilot facility today as part of a wider visit to IBERS. Dr David Bryant and Dr Joe Gallagher discussed biorefining innovation in Wales and in a wider context, while introducing the ambassador...

Low Carbon Manager, Dr Judith Thornton, has been reflecting on using Miscanthus as an alternative to the more traditional wheat or barley straw as a building material.  The Miscanthus bales were generally simple to work with, being easy to cut to size and straighten, but because...

BEACON Low Carbon Manager, Judith Thornton, has been working with Neighbourhood Construction to develop breathable building plasters from plant material, while investigating their thermal properties and vapour permeability. Plant materials being trialled include hemp, oilseed...

Rhun ap Iorwerth, AM for Ynys Mon, visited the pilot facilities at Mona, Anglesey, on Friday 17 November to hear about recent collaborative projects with industry and how support from the BioComposites Centre and the BEACON initiative were helping companies in Wales with innovation. ...

The 2nd International Bioeconomy Congress took place on 12-13 September 2017 at the University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart.

In the session on New Crops for a Sustainable Biomass Supply, Professor John Clifton Brown gave a presentation on miscanthus entitled "The Role of Breeding in...

Low carbon manager, Dr Judith Thornton, featured on the BBC Wales news today as she helped build the first ever miscanthus bale house near Machynlleth, Powys. Working with the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT), Judith is exploring the potential to use miscanthus or Asian...

Summer 2017 saw the relocation of the pyrolysis rig from its original site by the seed bank at IBERS, Gogerddan, to a new site to make way for construction of the new Aberystwyth Innovation and Enterprise Campus (AIEC).  The three main sections of the rig were carefully...

Guto Bebb, Member of Parliament for Aberconwy, and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Wales Office, visited IBERS today to see the cutting-edge research undertaken by BEACON scientists. Dr Joe Gallagher, Head of Industrial Biotechnology and Director of Knowledge...