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The government has announced a £12.4m funding package to help some of the most polluting industries find new ways to reduce their carbon emissions and energy bills.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said the funding has supported the deployment of a range of new technologies, from heat pumps to hydrogen-ready equipment.
Some 22 projects from businesses across England, Wales and Northern Ireland received a portion of the money in sectors including pharmaceuticals, steel, paper, and food and drink.
The winning bids include sustainably harvesting food in Carmarthenshire, Wales, through a new air source heat pump system; capturing waste heat to dry, heat, crush and grind materials for roadmaking in South Yorkshire, and using revolutionary high-temperature heat pumps to reduce the energy needed to heat and cool cheese, reducing emissions in dairy farms across the Midlands.
It is estimated that industry is currently responsible for producing 16 per cent of the UK’s emissions which will need to be cut by two-thirds by 2035 in order for net-zero targets to be achieved.
“Boosting the energy efficiency of industrial processes is a critical step not only in our transition to a lower-carbon economy, but also by helping businesses to cut their energy costs and protect valuable British jobs,” said energy minister Graham Stuart.
“That’s why the government has stepped in once again to support energy intensive industries, with a fresh funding round to unleash the next generation of green innovators who are reshaping the way technology can reduce carbon emissions.”
The money will be awarded as part of the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund, which was first launched in June 2020, and has so far provided £34.8m in funding for various projects.
Dunbia – one of the biggest food companies in Europe, based in Carmarthenshire, Wales – has been awarded funds to upgrade its heating system from a gas oil-fired steam boiler to an air-source heat pump that is powered by renewably sourced electricity.
This allows the company to harvest edible products and process the food with hot-water washing, through a sustainable and energy-efficient thermal supply system.
Harsco Environmental’s SteelPhalt plant, based in Rotherham, Yorkshire, has been manufacturing high-performance tarmac products for the UK roadmaking industry since the 1960s.
This energy-intensive process of drying, heating, crushing, grinding and conveying currently utilises large volumes of natural gas, gas oil and electricity from the grid.
The company is using the new funding to investigate ways to capture the waste heat in the exhaust gases and transform it into electrical power, reducing the fuel demand of the road burners.
Autotech Engineering is a multinational firm based in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, which specialises in manufacturing metals for lighter vehicles.
High-tonnage presses of flat metal sheets typically loses lots of energy through heat and noise, IETF has helped to fund the SERPENT project which is actively capturing and reusing this lost energy.
The firm has already seen a reduction of almost 10 per cent in peak power usage during tool changeover.
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