BUSINESS Secretary Vince Cable has today opened a new centre to help develop renewable products, such as chemicals, from plants at the University of York.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) awarded the university a £2.5 million capital grant to create the Biorenewables Development Centre, a pilot centre for industry and academics to work on new processes to convert plants and biowastes, such as agricultural and food waste into products, such as chemicals.

The European Regional Development Fund also invested about £1 million into the centre.

The new centre employs about ten people directly and is applying for further European funding to employ another ten people. It also has targets to work with more than 130 small and medium-sized businesses and create more than 100 jobs in the region by 2015.

The BDC, which combines research already being undertaken in the university's Green Chemistry centre and Centre for Novel Agricultural Products (CNAP) and increases the scale at which this research can be done, has already started projects, including helping a small company turn industrial waste into valuable chemicals, with the help of specially-developed strains of the mould, Aspergillus.

Dr Cable said: “This new centre will strengthen the UK’s position as a leader in the exploitation of high-value chemicals from renewable sources. It will also help UK companies to access and capitalise on the global growth potential from these new technologies and products.”

Prof Ian Graham, chair of the BDC board, said: “Our aim in establishing the BDC is to help make the UK a world leader in the production of high value chemicals from plants and microbes by combining academic excellence from the University of York with industry capability.”

“The new BDC facility will help regional businesses access world-leading research capability and process technology at a scale to accelerate new product discovery and business growth,” added Prof Nicola Spence, chief executive of SCY.

Dr Cable also met City of York Council officials to discuss the economic potential of the York Central development site, work on which has stalled amid the recession in recent years.

Development of the site, next to York Station, could create more than 7,500 new jobs, with the council saying the focus would be on "York's proven growth sectors" - creative and knowledge-based industries and business, financial and insurance services.

Network Rail has recently secured planning permission for a new training and operations centre within the York Central land and the authority is drawing up a blueprint designed to attract investment from the public and private sectors.

Dr Cable said: "The Government is committed to help close the gap between north and south and encourage strong and sustainable growth across different industries.

"Today's visit to Yorkshire highlights how different sectors and companies are playing their part, from greener manufacturing to exports."

The council's chief executive, Kersten England, said: "York has successfully reinvented itself from a railway and confectionary-manufacturing city into an international hub for science and technology and a national centre for financial and business services.

"We are the third fastest-growing city in the UK and we need to evolve and develop our assets, such as York Central, to remain an attractive proposition for investors and competitive in industry."