Case Study - Achor
Norfolk: leading the global race to save the planet
Norfolk is the epitome of Blake’s green and pleasant land, according to clean energy scientist and entrepreneur Chris Barry. The chairman and founder of Achor International chose the company’s base at Colney Hall, near Norwich, because of the area’s burgeoning reputation as a world centre for life sciences. An added bonus is the county’s “outstanding” countryside.
Achor has patented a technology that turns the contents of your wheelie bin into clean fuels that can run your car or heat your home. Not only does the process lead to a reduction in damaging carbon emissions, it has the potential to cut landfill to 10 per cent of current levels.
Managing director Chris Barry, originally from Liverpool, has spent the past decade living in Norfolk and is convinced he is in the perfect place to both expand his business and enjoy his life.
“Norwich offers the facilities of a large city within a small city environment, and an extraordinary science base which can provide both employees and expertise to enable hi-tech bio businesses to grow rapidly,” he explains.
“Norfolk is an outstanding place to be – it provides a very high standard of living within a rural setting. My family enjoys walking, and the north Norfolk coast is marvellous – you will go far to find a better collection of welcoming hostelries with excellent beer, and the people are quiet and friendly.”
Many of Achor’s staff – set to expand from eight now to 30 over the next year – are graduates of the Faculty of Science at the University of East Anglia, a key reason for the company’s decision to come to Norfolk.
“One of the great benefits is being closely associated with the university, which is a real world leader and creates excellent graduates – I can’t speak too highly of them,” says Chris.
The company also benefits from collaborations with others based at the Norwich Research Park, one of Europe’s largest single-site concentrations of research in environmental sciences, health and food.
The end-game for Chris is the dual target of reducing greenhouse gasses and cutting landfill using microbial technologies.
He has just returned from Cape Town, South Africa, where he addressed a conference on global warming with a warning that landfill must be reduced: “We can’t keep wasting land because the land is required for producing food, and we can use the waste from agriculture and garbage to generate a lot of fuel.”
The process works by adding enzymes to domestic or farm waste to produce alcohol fuel, which can be used as a clean additive to petrol to run cars. Other types of fuel can be produced by varying the bacteria in the mix.
Chris has no doubts about the potential.
“The process can be used to produce fuel cells to produce electricity either for households or business,” he says. “There is no reason why every housing estate can’t have its own power station, using its garbage to either power household units or pass electricity back to the grid.“
The future, it seems, is rubbish – but there’s no better place than Norfolk to harness the wonders of waste.
Fact file: Why Achor?
- Revolutionary biological solution to rising carbon emissions
- Cut landfill from domestic waste to 10% of current levels
- Potential clients include governments in Africa and major commercial concerns in the USA, Portugal and the UK
Fact file: Why Norfolk?
- Availability of high quality biological sciences staff from the UEA and the Institute of Food Research
- Proximity to expertise at the Norwich Research Park
- Very high standard of living and quality of surrounding countryside
