Conference Programme FULL (1)

‘Food SME / Community Collaboration: Towards Food Waste as Everybody’s Business!’
Toni Burrowes-Cromwell
This Operational Research project explores how food SME/ community partnership against food waste may be enhanced
by relational thinking and action. Food is unlike any other business commodity. It is a vital resource which everyone needs.
In the UK, loss or removal of food materials from the value chain is becoming acknowledged as unsustainable wastage.
While extant literature is revealing deliberate corporate buy-in to address this by working with communities (e.g.
consumers, charities, groups), the SME profile appears to be in striking contrast.
Yet, SMEs comprise the largest segment of the UK private sector and their participation is essential for addressing national
food waste. Operationalising this is wrought with systemic complexity. If these enterprises are not to lag behind the
corporate sector, they will need support opting in to potential business benefits from resource efficient practice. Food
SME/ community cooperation presents an opportunity. Using a case study approach, it examines an SME industry /
community ‘hub’ and, appropriate lens for enquiry, analysing and optimizing partnership against food waste.
This project is sympathetic to SME diversity of: size, scope, capacity, specialization and community setting. One important
issue is the phenomenal culture change required, not just in how these enterprises operate but how they cooperate with
community stakeholders. The study will inform discussion about supporting food SME resource efficiency. It will also help
to create an SME/ community relational framework for combatting food waste- consistent with the waste to resource
goals of a UK circular economy.
A Novel Photocatalytic Plasma Reactor for Hydrogen Production from Waste Gases.
Samuel Capp, David Sawtell, Peter Kelly, Craig Banks, Zaenab Abd-Allah
The need for reliable, alternative fuel sources is one of the most important challenges faced by mankind today. Along with
this, the Paris Agreement involving 188 countries pledged to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees until 2100.
Therefore the move to low emission fuel sources is crucial. Hydrogen is one prospect for energy production as it is a zeroemission
fuel, however a disadvantage of using hydrogen is the ability of efficiently obtaining it for use. One exciting
solution is the use of non-thermal, photocatalytic, atmospheric-pressure, plasma reactors to convert waste gases such as
methane and CO 2 from landfill sites into hydrogen and other valuable chemicals. Plasma is a fully or partially ionised gas
giving it unique physical properties. Non-thermal plasma, meaning it is not in thermal equilibrium, is advantageous due to
the ability to produce it at atmospheric pressure and temperature. Plasma and catalysts often operate synergistically, the
plasma creates excited and reactive species which interact with the catalyst at temperatures which thermal catalysis
would be ineffective. The aim is to devise a novel photocatalytic plasma reactor to convert waste gases into hydrogen,
other valuable synthetic gases and to open the door to using non-thermal plasma reactors for use in industry as a greener
option to obtain hydrogen. The move to hydrogen as an energy would not only change the lives of humans, be that social,
political, environmental or economical, but also change the lives of animals in habitats which are affected by human
induced climate change.