Notice

IETF Phase 1, Summer 2020: competition winners

Updated 15 May 2024

Applies to England, Northern Ireland and Wales

Kimberly-Clark Ltd: Energy Efficient Boilers Project – Barrow Mill

• energy efficiency deployment competition
• project ID - 98077
• grant offered - £362,979.00
• project costs - £2,381,601
• location - Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria

Kimberly-Clark has set a goal of cutting emissions to net zero by 2050, and reduce current emissions to pre-2005 levels by 2030.

Its Barrow Mill site in the northwest is one of its main UK production hubs. In the UK, the company produces Andrex, Kleenex and Huggies, and employ over 1,000 people.

This project will replace current boiler systems at Barrow Mill with the latest state-of-the-art models. This will provide significant efficiency improvements (over 10 percentage points), while reducing emissions by over 6,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. The associated cost savings will increase the global competitiveness of Barrow Mill.

This project perfectly complements the company’s internal investment programmes to adopt energy efficient solutions across its manufacturing sites. It will help secure the future of Barrow Mill, adding the capacity needed to expand production in future with the potential for significant job creation in the region. The project will ensure clean growth of the site while fulfilling Kimberly-Clark’s sustainability goals.

Aggregate Industries: Low energy drying of pulverised fuel ash to reduce embodied carbon emissions of cementitious products

• energy efficiency deployment competition
• project ID - 81025
• grant offered - £631,833
• project costs - £983,233
• location - Retford, Nottinghamshire

The project will deliver a novel commercial scale plant to dry pulverised fuel ash (PFA), a waste product, for use as a Secondary Cementitious Material in the construction sector.

Coomtech’s Surface Moisture Removal Technology (SMR) uses 25% of the energy used by industry standard, inefficient thermal driers, driving down CO2 emissions by up to 75%. Aggregate Industries will utilise the dried PFA to lower the embedded carbon footprint of cementitious products by 30%.

A company spokesperson said:

Coomtech, in creating a successful industrial pilot plant, is only the beginning of optimising and continuing to develop a radical new Kinetic Drying technology for minerals and industrial and energy waste streams. Some of these materials are used now, others are being newly tested for the greener and cleaner future of the cementitious industries, targeting contributions to the reduction of the estimated 7% contribution to the global CO2 emissions.

The benefit of being selected for an IETF grant has enabled the company to attract the support and specific co-development opportunities with the UK’s Aggregate Industries. Aggregate Industries is part of the world’s largest cementitious business, Holcim Group. This project enables us to take the next steps for the technology of industrial testing and further improvement in an operational environment with our partners. In particular the ongoing focus on further verifiable reductions of energy costs and emissions produced by the system which will contribute to the reduction of both and greening of the cementitious industries. Crucially important is the added benefit that the project will enable an independently audited energy and emissions performance for the Coomtech Kinetic Drier.

Marlow Foods Ltd: mHycoprotein Project

• study competition
• project ID - 89876
• grant offered - £114,664
• project costs - £199,691
• location – Billingham, County Durham

The UK food and drink sector consumes circa 24TWh of energy annually, accounting for around 9 million tonnes of CO2 or 1% of all UK emissions. Approximately 80% of the direct emissions from food manufacturing result from high heat requirements from drying, baking and evaporation operations (estimates provided by Marlow Foods Limited).

The mHycoprotein Project focuses on delivering significant emissions reductions to the food and beverage sector through the use of green hydrogen. The feasibility study will investigate deploying dual fuel boilers at Quorn’s main manufacturing site near Billingham to meet the facility’s growing heating requirements.

Quorn is a meat alternative company that uses fermentation to extract mycoprotein from a naturally occurring fungus, resulting in 90% lower carbon footprint compared to alternative meat products. This is part of Quorn’s mandate to achieve net zero GHG emissions at all manufacturing sites by 2030. The results of the study could be used to decarbonise heating operations at other food manufacturing facilities across the UK.

Protium, a UK green hydrogen developer, will lead the overall project and will be supported by Petrofac, an engineering company that will undertake detailed technical feasibility work, and Quorn, which will provide information about the site’s processes.

The mHycoprotein feasibility study is an important step towards demonstrating the commercial and technical viability of hydrogen boilers at a food manufacturing facility, which could pave the way for additional installations across the UK.

Pioneer Foods (UK) Ltd: Realising energy and carbon savings from ESOS opportunities

• study competition
• project ID - 94642
• grant offered - £38,970
• project costs - £77,940
• location – Orton Southgate, Peterborough

Pioneer Foods UK produce breakfast cereals and healthy fruit snacks. The company is a leading cereal maker, providing own-label, branded manufacture and packaging services for many of the leading retailers and brands in the UK.

The company recognises the need to act responsibly, avoiding waste and minimising its environmental impact. This means managing all the resources it uses as effectively and as efficiently as possible, from the natural ingredients that go into cereals to the energy needed for mixing and baking them.

Pioneer Foods UK undertook an ESOS (Energy Savings Opportunities Scheme) Assessment - a review of how it manages and use energy. The ESOS Report identifies the strengths and weaknesses of an approach to energy use, energy drivers and potential projects that will help to reduce energy use, costs and carbon emissions.

It is not mandatory to implement the projects identified in the ESOS Report, but it makes sense for any business to do so where the action will not only save money, but also reduce carbon emissions and contribute to environmental goals.

Pioneer Foods UK’s ESOS Report identified several opportunities that would reduce energy use and realise significant carbon reductions if all of them could be implemented.

Several of the projects involve improvements to ovens and dryers, which are key to producing cereals. These are very large items of plant involving many sub-systems including PLCs (programmable logic controllers), gas burners, fans and conveyors. In addition, they require services such as steam and compressed air, which are provided by transforming gas and electricity. These transformations need to be as efficient as possible to reduce costs and carbon emissions.

In this project, the company propose to carry out detailed feasibility studies of these transformations and plant operations. The analysis and evaluation will inform it which of the opportunities can be realised, how much investment (finance and other resources) is required, identify any risks (especially to processes) and quantify the benefits in terms of monetary and carbon reductions.

RPC Containers Ltd: Deployment of ultrasonic melt flow enhancement technology to achieve energy savings of 27% across the energy intensive, injection moulded food packaging sector

• energy efficiency deployment competition
• project ID - 95895
• grant offered - £1,025,476
• project costs - £2,929,931
• location - Blackburn

RPC-Superfos designs, develops and manufactures innovative plastic packaging solutions and the majority of its carbon emissions are linked directly with the manufacturing process. A focus on energy efficiency is a large part of its corporate responsibility - electricity and carbon emissions are reported in its Annual Reports and Accounts and to monitor energy use, the energy management system ISO50001 is being rolled out across our sites.

Thermoplastic injection moulding is an energy intensive process whereby room temperature granules are heated within the screw and barrel of the injection unit until they reach the melt temperature, at which point the viscosity is sufficiently low to inject the material into the cold mould to form the product. Heat is extracted from the molten polymer material into the steel of the mould, the temperature of which is maintained by circulating chilled water through the mould.

The viscosity required to inject molten polymer into the mould is what dictates the minimum melt temperature, as melt viscosity reduces with increasing melt temperature. Melt temperature governs the cooling time; the lower the melt temperature, the less cooling time required, with shorter cycle times improving productivity.

The company proposes to use an ultrasonic vibration system applied to the melt during injection, which provides a flow enhancement akin to a temporarily reduction in melt viscosity. This reduction in melt viscosity then enables a lower melt temperature, compensating for the otherwise increased viscosity due to the lower temperatures. Testing has shown over 20% reduction in energy consumption per moulding and a 20% productivity improvement.

RPC-Superfos’ Blackburn manufacturing site operates ~60 injection moulding machines, producing food packaging products. Its vision with this project is to roll out the technology across the site with a goal of reducing production electricity consumption by over 20%.

Through increasing productivity and reducing its carbon footprint, injection moulders will help to meet the government’s net zero carbon and Clean Growth Strategy targets for industry to “…improve their energy productivity, by at least 20% by 2030”, primarily addressing the ‘improving business and industry efficiency’ theme.

Turbine Surface Technologies Ltd: Industrial argon process gas recovery in aerospace industry

• study competition
• project ID 96346
• grant offered - £59,143
• project costs - £105,246
• location - Derby

Turbine Surface Technologies (TST) is a Joint Venture between Rolls-Royce and Chromalloy. Operating in the aerospace sector, TST specialises in advanced thermal protective coatings in the hot section of gas turbines. The application of these advanced coatings typically requires high temperature, inert environments, which are typically energy-intensive and therefore carbon-intensive processes.

TST has teamed up with UK-based technology innovator Gas Recovery and Recycle Limited, which is already deploying its proprietary argon gas recovery systems into the silicon wafer fabrication industry, to deliver a feasibility study on the deployment of this technology for TST processes and potentially further into the aerospace sector.

The collaboration provides a key step on TST’s zero carbon roadmap, setting out its feasibility study in recovering argon used in key manufacturing processes in the business.

The project vision is to reduce the carbon footprint of TST process gas supplies by at least 60% using argon recovery technology proposed by consortium partner Gas Recovery and Recycle Limited (GR2L).

The overall programme of work includes the delivery of a business case for adopting the technology into TST, the wider opportunities for aerospace industry deployment and the publicising of the project to inspire the next generation of talent into the engineering and manufacturing industry.

The project will focus on TST’s processes representing the majority of the business’ argon usage, dealing with the potential need to condition or treat any exhaust gas before it can be considered for re-use in the process.

The project shall establish whether or not the potential technology successfully developed by consortium partner GR2L in other industry sectors is technically and commercially viable for TST’s processes.

Rockwool Ltd: Installation of ORC at Wern Tarw site

• energy efficiency deployment competition
• project ID - 97009
• grant offered - £273,504
• project costs - £607,786
• location - Bridgend, South Wales

Rockwool own and operate an insulation production facility in Bridgend, South Wales. The site manufactures a range of products by melting rock at very high temperatures to produce a flame retardant insulation material which is helping to insulate buildings and products around the world, directly reducing the carbon emissions of these buildings over their lifetime.

The production process uses furnaces to melt the rock to enable it to be processed in to the company’s insulation products. This is a very energy intensive process and so the firm is always looking for ways to improve it to reduce the inputs, increase efficiency and reduce any negative affect on the environment.

Recent research has shown that one of the furnace’s cooling systems at the site is the single largest user of water on site. And whilst investigating ways to overcome this, by altering the design of the cooling system, Rockwool have found that the heated water used in the cooling system could also be used to generate electrical energy by passing it through an organic rankine cycle (ORC) system.

The benefits of installing this system will be:

• generation of electricity from a waste product
• carbon savings due to importing less electricity to the site
• reduction in water use at the site
• reduced visual impact to local residents

These systems have been installed in other industrial and manufacturing scenarios and are an excellent way to produce electrical energy from an otherwise waste by product.

Sheffield Forgemasters Engineering Ltd: Decarbonising the production of large scale forgings and castings

• study competition
• project ID - 97148
• grant offered - £74,805
• project costs - £168,407
• location - Sheffield

Sheffield Forgemasters specialises in the manufacture of large scale, high quality, cast and forged components. The company has a 200 year history in metal production and forming, supplying products to a range of market sectors including defence, oil and gas, renewables and power generation. The company represents the UK’s sole capability for supplying major nuclear vessel forgings for both civil and defence applications

The production of large scale cast and forged product uses carbon-based fuels in multiple stages of the manufacturing process. The largest contributor to carbon emissions is related to the burning of natural gas for a variety of heating applications. Other emissions and sources of carbon are associated with cutting and burning operations in addition to a range of consumables used.

The principal objective of the project is to address the decarbonisation of energy intensive manufacturing processes at Sheffield Forgemasters in order to align the company to the national ambition of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Primary manufacturing routes, focusing on key processes such as steel making and heat treatment, will be investigated to identify opportunities for decarbonisation. The company’s reliance on natural gas means opportunities for fuel switching to carbon free equivalents such as hydrogen will be explored. In addition, opportunities to remove oxyacetylene and propane fuels used in cutting operations will also be considered.

The proposed decarbonisation solutions will also examine the potential impact of process changes on products from a quality and engineering performance view point. The results of the study will be used to inform decisions on future capital investment and form the basis for future technology deployment and development projects.

The study will identify the possible modifications required to be made to company’s infrastructure to enable fuel switching, building a case for the industrial use of carbon-free alternative fuels, which can potentially be deployed to other industrial markets and sectors

The project represents the starting point for a comprehensive decarbonisation strategy at Sheffield Forgemasters. The project will be delivered in partnership with the Material Processing Institute which has extensive experience in high temperature, energy intensive industries. Primarily working with the steel industry, The Materials Processing Institute, like Sheffield Forgemasters, have a strong track record of participating in and leading multi-partner technology projects. The Institute has experience in furnace performance and plant audit in collaborations working to decarbonise foundation industries.

Firsteel Ltd: Feasibility study for the energy transition of Firsteel Ltd

• study competition
• project ID - 97152
• grant offered - £80,116
• project costs - £160,231
• location - Walsall

Firsteel is a subsidiary of William King, which is a family-owned independent metals service centre and integrated supplies manager. William King operate some of the most technically advanced metals service centres in Europe. William King supply the leading manufacturers in a range of industries including automotive, domestic appliance, metal packaging and construction.

The Firsteel plant in Brockhurst Crescent, Walsall, produces circa 14kT annually. Firsteel was founded in 1957 as an independently owned multi metals company. The company was the first in the UK to develop a continuously operated coil coating line. This technology has been further developed over subsequent years on the site to achieve market leading coated products supplied to every corner of the globe. The Firsteel business is a leader in the development of continuously coated ‘non-stick’ products supplied into the bakeware sector. In addition, Firsteel was the first UK company to develop adhesive bonded systems.

The main energy used in the process is in the form of natural gas for ovens and a thermal oxidiser operating at higher temperatures. There are also various pre-treatment cleaning sections and processes utilising gas burners.

Electrical energy is consumed mainly by supply and extract air fans with various other process equipment such as bridle drives and equipment on the plant.

Firsteel plan to undertake a comprehensive feasibility study focus on the coating ovens and thermal oxidisers.

The study will aim to establish clear and beneficial options for:

• exhaust from ovens, thermal oxidisation with a view to determining the benefits of an RTO (Regenerative Thermal Oxidiser)
• ovens airflow and air movements – to determine recirculation, entry air, air distribution
• system control – to reduce energy during low or no production conditions
• waste heat recovery from exhaust emission systems

Initial estimates suggest as much as 80% of the natural gas energy used by the oven and oxidiser processes could be saved if options from the study were implemented.

Sofidel UK Ltd: Baglan Visconip / Redry Project

• energy efficiency deployment competition
• project ID - 97831
• grant offered - £676,777
• project costs - £1,503,949
• location – Briton Ferry, Neath, Wales

The paper industry, particularly tissue production, is classed as an energy intensive industry both in terms of thermal and electrical energy.

Sofidel UK has sourced a solution that should provide it with significant energy savings and a reduction in CO2 emissions. A number of Advantage ViscoNip press installations operate in production machines around the world and it has become the new standard for wet pressing in conventional Dry Crepe machines.

It provides many benefits including improved uniformity, major energy savings, increased product flexibility and quality of product produced. The Advantage ViscoNip press is very well suited for installation on the Sofidel UK paper machine. The equipment allows for a high linear load, improves energy efficiency and increases softness, which is key for the UK market.

To add to the efficiency of the ViscoNip, Sofidel intend to install the Valmet Advantage ReDry. This is designed with the aim of exploiting the hood exhaust air which is still rich in energy and is only partly recovered. This use improves general efficiency while reducing emissions into the atmosphere. Energy demand to reach the final dryness is substantially reduced.

The combination of the two technologies will allow a reduction in carbon emissions of approximately 3400 tCO2/year.

Ibstock Brick Ltd: Brick drying and firing using syngas optimised burners

• study competition
• project ID - 98278
• grant offered - £66,454
• project costs - £211,251
• location - Leicester

This project will prepare an engineering study for the switch from natural gas to syngas for the brick production process starting with drying and ultimately following on to the higher risk process of firing bricks in kilns. The innovation within this project is the need to take the development of using different syngas components and optimising various burner designs and controls and ultimately demonstrating the brick manufacturing process is possible with syngas as a fuel source. The project gives both an energy efficiency and carbon reduction benefit.

The need for the experimental development is that it is likely that the kiln firing atmosphere will be affected by the different gases and hence affect the product aesthetics. In order that a large amount of product is not wasted, a small experimental development kiln will be used, which is necessary to optimise and then finalise the burner design. The gas will be supplied from a syngas production process and they will supply gases with various components to best suit the drying and firing processes.

The experimental kiln will be operated at a UK brick manufacturing site with access to the gas and other facilities using equipment being supplied by UK companies. The key objective is to gather the necessary design information from successful drying and firing in the process using syngas without affecting product quality.

The gas will be trialled on the dryer gas burners and the test brick kiln, providing the necessary information to allow for an engineering study to be completed which will outline the design specification required for installation on a full-scale dryer and kiln.

Alcohols Ltd: Project Decal – Decarbonised production of alcohol-based products through application of advanced technologies and manufacturing processes

• energy efficiency deployment competition
• project ID - 98407
• grant offered - £679,403
• project costs - £1,698,507
• location - Rugby

The UK spirits sector is estimated to be worth approximately £10,116 million producing 303 million litres of product in 2020 (source Statista). This is expected to reach approximately £13,922 million producing 348 million litres by 2023. The gin portion of the sector is estimated to be approximately £2,700 million, approximately 30% of which is for export (WSTA, 2019).

Gin has been the leading spirit category across Western Europe and has overtaken whisky as the most favoured spirit, according to market research by Kantar.

Furthermore, it is estimated that the UK alcohol industry employed approximately 800-900,000 jobs, with approximately 30,000 employed directly in production (source: Institute of Alcohol Studies). The spirits sector employs 186,000 people directly and a further 110,000 through the supply chain in the UK (WSTA, 2019). The UK spirits industry is clearly a vital part of the tourism and hospitality sector and represents more than 20% of UK food and drink exports and 470 distilleries across the country (more than doubling since 2015).

This project will enable Alcohols Ltd to contribute to the UK effort in becoming a global leader in developing and realising sustainable methods for the production of gin and potable spirits. By increasing efficiency and cycle time reduction, Alcohols Ltd will also increase capacity to enable the UK to access a growing global market.

Both the drinks industry and the downstream specialty alcohols customers are putting more emphasis on sustainable supply chain and sustainable procurement, especially in Europe where alcohols have an export footprint. This project will build on already strong product quality and service standards and develop a sustainability capability and flexibility to grow into new products and markets.

RPC Containers Ltd: Deployment of ultrasonic melt flow enhancement technology to achieve energy savings of 27% across the energy intensive, injection moulded consumer packaging sector

• energy efficiency deployment competition
• project ID - 98472
• grant offered - £1,108,554
• project costs - £3,695,179
• location – Oakham, Rutlands, East Midlands

RPC-Superfos designs, develops and manufactures innovative plastic packaging solutions and the majority of its carbon emissions are linked directly with the manufacturing process. A focus on energy efficiency is a large part of its corporate responsibility - electricity and carbon emissions are reported in its Annual Reports and Accounts and to monitor energy use the energy management system ISO50001 is being rolled out across its sites.

Thermoplastic injection moulding is an energy intensive process, whereby room temperature granules are heated within the screw and barrel of the injection unit until they reach the melt temperature at which point the viscosity is sufficiently low to inject the material into the cold mould to form the product. Heat is extracted from the molten polymer material into the steel of the mould, the temperature of which is maintained by circulating chilled water through the mould.

The viscosity required to inject molten polymer into the mould is what dictates the minimum melt temperature, as melt viscosity reduces with increasing melt temperature. Melt temperature governs the cooling time; the lower the melt temperature, the less cooling time required, with shorter cycle times improving productivity.

The company proposes to use an ultrasonic vibration system applied to the melt during injection, which provides a flow enhancement akin to a temporarily reduction in melt viscosity. This reduction in melt viscosity then enables a lower melt temperature, compensating for the otherwise increased viscosity due to the lower temperatures. Testing has shown over 20% reduction in energy consumption per moulding and a 20% productivity improvement.

RPC-Superfos’ Oakham manufacturing site operates ~48 injection moulding machines, producing consumer packaging products. The company’s vision with this project is to roll out the technology across the site with a goal of reducing production electricity consumption by over 20%.

Through increasing productivity and reducing its carbon footprint, injection moulders will help to meet the Government’s net zero carbon and Clean Growth Strategy targets for industry to “…improve their energy productivity, by at least 20% by 2030”, primarily addressing the ‘improving business and industry efficiency’ theme.

Samworth Brothers Ltd: Energy efficiency improvements in chilled food manufacturing

• energy efficiency deployment competition
• project ID - 97750
• grant offered - £549,210
• project costs - £1,830,700
• location - Leicester

Modern refrigeration systems are significantly more energy efficient than their predecessors, through developments in refrigeration gasses and heat exchangers. While less efficient than modern systems, previous generations are effective and often have many years serviceable life left.

Chilled food manufacturing relies on industrial scale refrigeration to ensure the safety of food produced whilst delivering quality nutritious foods to consumers. The IETF funding will increase the energy efficiency of the industrial refrigeration system at Bradgate Bakery by enabling the replacement of current, inefficient but serviceable systems installed separately over time, to be replaced with one efficient state-of-the-art ammonia-based system.

The proposed design incorporates innovations that have been brought to market over the last few years by leading technology providers. The design incorporates energy efficiency technology at every stage of the refrigeration process from motor design to fan optimisation delivering energy savings over the current system.

This step change in energy efficiency levels will equate to a significantly lower carbon emission over the lifetime of the system.

GSK Ltd: GSK Barnard Castle - energy efficiency

• energy efficiency deployment competition
• project ID - 95757
• grant offered - £354,413
• project costs - £792,601
• location - County Durham

GSK aims to reduce its environmental impact by one quarter by 2030, cutting greenhouse gas emissions, reducing water impact and redirecting waste for beneficial use. GSK committed to the Carbon Neutral 2050 strategy and plans to announce even more ambitious targets in the near future.

The IETF project funding is for a portfolio of energy efficiency projects to be implemented at the GSK Barnard Castle pharmaceuticals site in County Durham. The overall objective of the project is to progress energy efficiency focused projects, particularly focused on heating, which have historically been hard to justify based on financial savings particularly due to the relatively low price of natural gas. A portfolio of projects have been selected, which blends proven technologies which do not meet current internal investment thresholds and an innovative waste heat recovery project.

They include both energy efficiency and waste heat recovery projects:

• replacement of steam heat exchangers (calorifiers) for low temperature hot water (LTHW) plate heat exchangers and extension of the site hot water distribution network, reducing heat losses and improving use of CHP heat
• replacement of inefficient motors and process fans to reduce power consumption
• Installation of a heat pump to recover waste heat from site compressors and displace heat demand on natural gas boilers

Hinton Perry & Davenhill Ltd: Study of HP&D exhaust kiln heat conversion and use for drying bricks and tiles

• study competition
• project ID - 80917
• grant offered - £162,247
• project costs - £273,846
• location - West Midlands

The objective of the project is to improve energy efficiency within the brick and tile dryers at Hinton Perry & Davenhill Ltd by reducing gas and electricity consumption, and where possible the overall drying cycles.

With the project partners, Ceramic Drying Systems (CDS), the project aims to fully study the requirements for a scheme to utilise a major thermal processing heat exchanger that will collect all of the kiln exhaust flue gases at a wide range of high temperatures and absorb the heat into hot oil, transferring it to the drying chambers where it then passes through a further series of heat exchangers, that will release the heat contained within the hot oil back into the dryer recirculation air stream to be used throughout the drying cycle.

This process change would allow for the removal of gas burners, primary air fans and waste heat supply fans, thus significantly reducing the energy consumption for this key part of the production process. The company estimate that this would save around 900 tonnes of CO2 emissions, (over 10% of its CO2 emissions) and reduce its gas consumption by 12%.

Tate & Lyle Sugars Ltd: Deep decarbonisation of a sugar refinery: feasibility, engineering and wider replicability of this technology

• study competition
• project ID - 87937
• grant offered - £538,428
• project costs - £768,198
• location - London

Tate and Lyle Ltd is leading a consortia of 3 organisations to carry out a study of deep decarbonisation of its sugar refinery. The project will undertake a front-end engineering design (FEED) study on a process to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 90% from the Thames Refinery site based in Silvertown, London, and operated by Tate & Lyle Sugars (TLS).

The Thames Refinery uses boilers fired with natural gas to generate steam and power for the refining operations. These boilers emit carbon dioxide in their flue gases.

The hope is that the technology being assessed in this study can be deployed at the Thames Refinery site and also at other sugar refineries around the world. The technology can also be deployed to significantly reduce the emissions from a range of other emitters such as the cement, steel and power generation industries, and it can also be used to remove CO2 that is already in the air.

Laing O’Rourke Services Ltd: Decarbonising precast concrete mmanufacturing

• study competition
• project ID - 94780
• grant offered - £354,569
• project costs - £556,741
• location - Worksop

Laing O’Rourke Services Ltd is leading a consortia of three organisations to carry out a study of decarbonising precast concrete manufacturing.

The Decarbonising Precast Concrete Manufacturing project is to deliver a comprehensive feasibility study for implementing deep decarbonisation interventions at Laing O’Rourke’s Explore Manufacturing existing precast concrete production process based at Steetley, Worksop.

Moving concrete building production from in situ to offsite (precast) immediately has a significant impact on lowering embodied carbon in buildings. Moreover, the company is seeking to increase this further by deep decarbonisation of the precast manufacturing process offering anticipated total savings of some 56%.

The project will investigate every facet of the production process from low carbon, concrete, steel and aggregate materials and technologies to the overall formwork and curing systems. This initial scoping will quantify, prioritise and define interventions for decarbonisation of the precast production process and will then conduct feasibility trials for these interventions, including incorporation of low carbon materials and production technologies to decarbonise the manufacturing process.

Examples of identified technologies include low carbon concrete, recycled reinforcement, recycled and alternative aggregates, and formwork systems.

Saint-Gobain Glass (United Kingdom) Ltd: Glass furnace efficiency improvements

• energy efficiency deployment competition
• project ID - 95703
• grant offered - £1,427,858
• project costs - £4,760,049
• location - Eggborough, North Yorkshire

This project will deliver a brand new flat glass production furnace at SGGUK’s Eggborough plant in North Yorkshire. It will improve the plant’s efficiency whilst dramatically reducing energy consumption, emissions and on-going maintenance costs.

The existing furnace, which forms the central component of the production line, is now over 21 years old. It is inefficient, costly to maintain, resource intensive and presents on-going health and safety challenges. Saint-Gobain Glass has designed an entirely new furnace and production line component replacements utilising the very latest technological advances, including company-developed processes covered by patents.

The project will ideally be completed in 2021 and deliver the following benefits:

• annual minimum reduction in gas consumption of 75,243 MWh, based on like for like output
• lifetime reduction of 276,836 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions (TCO2e)
• lifetime reduction in energy bills of £19,604,762
• increase in daily production capacity potential by 60 tonnes of flat glass

Encirc Ltd: Deployment of end-to-end process control for Encirc’s Elton site (DEEP Control)

• energy efficiency deployment competition
• project ID - 96515
• grant offered - £2,513,839
• project costs - £6,228,317
• location - Elton

Encirc Ltd is leading a consortia of 4 organisations to deploy end-to-end process control for its Elton site. The ‘Deployment of End-to-End Process Control for Encirc’s Elton site (DEEP Control)’ project will deliver energy savings through deployment of new end-to-end control systems linking processes across the 2 Encirc Elton container-glass furnaces and associated 14 forming lines to facilitate:

• optimisation of furnaces to run at minimum energy whilst maintaining glass quality
• increased packed-to-melt efficiency through reduced defects/rejects in forming processes
• estimated total annual CO2 savings of more than 15kT/year

This project will use a MindSphere platform and Mendix-based dashboard to deploy new furnace and forming-section control systems, integrating both areas of the production process into one system. This will enable operators to maximise process efficiency through safely reducing the energy safety-margin required for reliable furnace operation.

The new control systems to be deployed will be an enabler for implementation of future decarbonisation opportunities, e.g. hydrogen fuels and light-weighting of containers.

William Cook Holdings Ltd: Energy efficiency feasibility study

• study competition
• project ID - 96739
• grant offered - £38,377
• project costs - £76,755
• location - Sheffield

The company’s Sheffield site specialises in manufacturing cast components and specialist alloys and superalloys for various sectors such as defence, rail, construction and oil and gas. The casting process is very energy intensive as it requires melting of metals and alloys.

The site operates a number of electric induction furnaces and gas-fired heavy foundry furnaces which consume a significant amount of gas and electricity every year. The temperatures inside the furnaces are about 1,200oC and a significant amount of high-grade heat from the furnaces is lost to the atmosphere in the form of hot flue gases.

In this feasibility study, the company is looking to improve the site’s energy efficiency and reduce its environmental footprint by recovering waste heat from the exhaust gases for a variety of possible uses such as producing electricity by organic Rankine cycle (ORC), pre-heating combustion air, pre-heating of feedstock, production of hot water and steam and rapid cooling using absorption chilling.

Phillips 66 Ltd: Refuelling the Humber refinery

• study competition
• project ID - 96873
• grant offered - £509,605
• project costs - £1,019,209
• location - Humberside

The Refuelling the Humber Refinery project will pave the way to deep decarbonisation of Phillips 66’s industrial fired heaters, while demonstrating the importance of hydrogen for industrial fuel switching as part of the UK’s net zero future.

This feasibility study will explore fuel switching in the refinery’s industrial fired heaters, displacing refinery fuel gas with both renewable and low-carbon hydrogen. This project supports Phillips 66’s long-term ‘‘Refinery of the Future’ vision, which involves deep decarbonisation of the refinery and development of a UK electric vehicle battery supply chain.

Fuel switching to hydrogen (renewable and low carbon) is needed to decarbonise these heaters with the potential to reduce onsite emissions by up to 400kTCO2/yr.

In this project Phillips 66 will explore the following:

• modelling of the heat and gas dispersion within the heaters, both before and after fuel switching
• burner testing at the vendor facilities to prove hydrogen firing capability and determine the impact on flame pattern and emissions
• provide preliminary design and cost estimates for the hydrogen supply pipework and associated equipment conversion needed, plus business case evaluation
• demonstrate a large-hydrogen demand to the regional hydrogen supply projects, Humber Zero and Gigastack, that are expected to create the Immingham Hydrogen Hub. This will increase the certainty of their business cases and deployment roadmaps throughout the 2020s
• expand the evidence base for refuelling fired heaters with a high fraction of hydrogen

These activities will prove both the commercial and technical viability of the technology.

James Cropper plc: Advanced waste heat recovery in a paper mill

• study competition
• project ID - 97125
• grant offered - £73,992
• project costs - £147,983
• location – Burnside, Kendal

The company is working with Innovate UK to understand the latest opportunities to deliver significant carbon savings to its manufacturing processes by understanding how renewable energy supplies can be employed effectively and efficiently to those processes.

James Cropper will do this by understanding key technology that will reduce the reliance of natural gas to run its processes. Recent advances in commercial heat recovery technology will be the main driver.

To this end, the company is carrying out a feasibility and engineering study into Advanced Waste Heat Recovery at its paper mill in Burnside, Kendal.

Celsa Manufacturing (UK) Ltd: Cardiff steelworks static VAR compensator

• energy efficiency deployment competition
• project ID - 97426
• grant offered - £3,000,000
• project costs - £8,571,428
• location – Cardiff, Wales

There are 3 distinct processing areas at the company’s Cardiff steelworks site:

• the Melt Shop, where scrap steel is sorted, processed and melted into billets through the use of an electric arc furnace (EAF) – a 33kV system that sends current through electrodes to melt 100% UK scrap metal with electricity
• the Section Mill where the billets are processed into merchant bar and light sections such as those seen in roof construction
• the Rod & Bar Mill where the billets are rolled into reinforcing products and wire rod with one use being rebar mesh in concrete foundations

From these facilities in Cardiff, Celsa produces and delivers around 1.2 million tonnes of finished product each year, mainly supplying the UK and Irish markets, and is 100% recyclable at the end of its life.

This project looks to install a large piece of equipment, a static VAR compensator (SVC), to the high voltage Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) and reduce the reactive power of the system. This, in turn, will reduce the time it takes to melt steel within the EAF and thereby increasing the production output for the same energy as before an SVC is installed.

It is anticipated to also improve the whole Melt Shop natural gas and low voltage electricity efficiency as well. Strategically, this is also a highly beneficial project to the UK as a whole since currently 7-8 million tonnes of UK scrap is exported, processed outside of the UK, and then reimported needlessly.

Instead, this project will enable an increase of domestic scrap processing and production of steel with a high value to the UK economy and the natural reduction in carbon associated with the extra transport of scrap around the world.

Tate & Lyle Sugars Ltd: Application of advanced cryogenic carbon capture to smaller scale and dispersed industrial site

• study competition
• project ID - 98102
• grant offered - £85,512
• project costs - £149,424
• location - London

Tate and Lyle Ltd is leading a consortia of 3 organisations to carry out a study of the application of advanced cryogenic carbon capture to a smaller scale and dispersed industrial site.

Working with engineering consultants Fichtner and specialist decarbonisation company PMW Technology, Tate & Lyle Sugars is studying the feasibility of using an innovative, low temperature, physical separation carbon capture process known as ‘A3C’ to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by up to 90% at its refinery in Silvertown, London,

The study will also assess use or disposal of the carbon dioxide captured on site. For example, transfer by ship to one of the proposed industrial carbon capture clusters that will inject the gas into former gas fields beneath the North Sea.

PMW Technology will bring its expertise in industrial carbon capture technology to assess the feasibility of the use of the advanced A3C cryogenic carbon capture process to the Silvertown refinery. This novel process cleans and then chills the flue gases to separate the carbon dioxide as a frost. The carbon dioxide is recovered and liquefied for storage, use or export.

Fichtner will work with Tate & Lyle Sugars and PMW Technology to assess the technical and commercial feasibility, risks and uncertainties of the application of the A3C carbon capture process to the Silvertown refinery and for potential adoption at other similar industrial sites - especially those at a small to medium scale and not located in one of the established industrial clusters.

Essar Oil (UK) Ltd: Stanlow refinery net zero ready furnace replacement

• energy efficiency deployment competition
• project ID 98331
• grant offered - £7,267,823
• project costs - £24,226,078
• location - Stanlow

Essar will upgrade a major distillation unit with a new, net zero ready furnace. The furnace will deliver immediate energy efficiency improvements through greater heat recovery, decarbonisation by eliminating oil firing and a reduction in other pollutants, especially NOx.

Forming part of Essar’s energy transition roadmap, the new furnace will be designed for 100% hydrogen firing and ready to utilise carbon-free hydrogen from the planned Hynet project. This will reduce site CO2 emissions by 11% each year. Essar believe this will be the first UK oil refinery furnace specifically designed to run on 100% hydrogen.

Construction is expected to begin in 2021, with the furnace being completed by September 2023.

Rick Bestwick (North) Ltd: Scunthorpe energy efficiency upgrade

• energy efficiency deployment competition
• project ID - 98501
• grant offered - £250,463
• project costs - £950,522
• location - Scunthorpe

This project is driven by a desire to make the plant in Scunthorpe as energy efficient as possible by upgrading and enhancing the elements that enable significant energy efficiency to be achieved.

In order to make the step change to leading-edge energy efficiency, funding is sought to enable the next generation of cold store technology to be applied to the existing building infrastructure.

This major step change will be achieved through the introduction of the latest energy efficient technology offering a significant saving in energy usage per annum and consequent carbon emission reductions.

Rick Bestwick (North West) Ltd: Warrington energy efficiency project

• energy efficiency deployment competition
• project ID - 98511
• grant offered - £250,101
• project costs - £766,242
• location - Warrington

This project is driven by a desire to make the plant in Warrington as energy efficient as possible by upgrading and enhancing the elements that enable significant energy efficiency to be achieved.

In order to make the step change to leading-edge energy efficiency, funding is sought to enable the next generation of cold store technology to be applied to the existing building infrastructure.

The project will be able to provide insight into the practical steps of retrofitting energy efficiency measures in an industry hampered by long plant asset lives.