Dubia’s parent company, Dawn Meats team pledges to invest £90 million in net zero climate target
Businesses across the UK will benefit from a share of more than £12 million government funding to help energy-intensive industries cut their carbon emissions and energy costs.
Decarbonisation
The funding for the 22 winning projects will help businesses across England, Wales and Northern Ireland clean up their industrial processes and improve their energy efficiency – benefiting industries including pharmaceuticals, steel, paper, and food and drink.
This £12.4 million funding was awarded as part of the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (IETF), which has awarded grants to British projects across the country to increase the energy efficiency of their industrial processes, from car manufacturing to steel production and food processing.
Winning bids
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 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% of the UK’s emissions and will need to cut emissions by two thirds by 2035 in order for the UK to achieve its net zero target.
Today’s funding will play a crucial role in helping to clean up big-emitting industries as part of the UK’s decarbonisation – reducing their reliance on fossil fuels, such as gas. This means businesses will not only reduce their environmental impact, but will also be shielded from fluctuating fossil fuel prices that have recently been high due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
So far, £34.8 million of funding has been awarded through the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund, which was first launched in June 2020. The Scottish government is administering £34 million (£26 million from the IETF) for investment in Scotland and launched the Scottish IETF in December 2020.
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.
Graham Stuart, Minister at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
Decarbonisation Examples
One of the biggest food companies in Europe, Dunbia, 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, reducing carbon emissions each year.
Harsco Environmental’s SteelPhalt plant, based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, has been developing and manufacturing high performance tarmac products for the UK roadmaking industry since the 1960s. This energy intensive process of drying, heating, crushing, grinding, conveying currently utilises large volumes of natural gas, gas oil and electricity from the grid, but thanks to government funding, the company is investigating ways to capture the waste heat in the exhaust gases and transform it into electrical power, reducing the fuel demand of the road burners and supporting manufacturing in the local area.
Autotech Engineering / Gestamp is a multinational based in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, specialising in the design, development and manufacture of metals for lighter and safer vehicles. Whereby 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. With a reduction of almost 10% already seen in peak power usage during tool changeover, this funding is helping to lower energy consumption and the environmental impact of critical car manufacturing.
Final thought
Decarbonisation is going to be an enormous task for the UK economy and the Government will be involved from top to bottom. From setting carbon prices all the way to protecting jobs that are currently dependent on fossil fuels.
The fraught politics of intervening in the economy will need to be confronted and the earlier the better. While this is a relatively small project with a small budget it will achieve some results and connect the Government to some of the industries that will need to decarbonise or disappear. It’s in everyone’s interests that these enterprises can be decarbonised early and job losses prevented.
Energy Sustainability Commission
This year Curia will be hosting an Energy Sustainability Commission to explore just what steps the UK will need to take to decarbonise the economy and secure jobs for the future.