SCIENTISTS at the University of York have helped discover a method of using plants to replace oil as a fuel source.

Professor Paul Walton and Professor Gideon Davies, of the Department of Chemistry, were part of an international team which found a method to allow cellulose to be converted efficiently into bio-ethanol.

The research, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was carried out with laboratories in California, Denmark, Copenhagen and Cambridge.

Professor Walton said: “This discovery opens up a major avenue in the continuing search for environmentally friendly and secure energy.”