UK RESEARCH and Innovation have announced funding projects for the first phases of the Deployment and Roadmap programme for decarbonisation strategies, run on behalf of the UK government.
The projects awarded funding are focused on helping the UK achieve net zero emissions by 2050 as part of the Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge, a key component of the government’s Clean Growth Strategy.
Through this the government is committed to deploying technologies like carbon capture and hydrogen networks in industrial clusters, supporting the Industrial Clusters Mission to establish the world’s first net zero industrial cluster by 2040.
Bryony Livesey, Challenge Director, Industrial Decarbonisation, commented on the announcement: “As the UK goes through trying times we nonetheless must plan for the future.
“We can announce today the funded projects of the first phases of the Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge.
“These projects are the first stride towards the government’s plans to develop cost-effective decarbonisation in Industrial hubs that tackle the emissions challenge that UK industry faces.
“We look forward to the development of these plans and their contribution to meeting the 2050 net-zero target.”
The first phases of the two competitions are:
- Deployment – In the first phase of this programme, UK businesses applied for a share of £1 million to develop plans for decarbonising an industrial cluster.
- Roadmaps – Six businesses have been awarded shares of £1 million to prepare plans for their journey to achieving low carbon and net zero industrial clusters.
Full list of Deployment competition winners
| Name of project | Region | Description |
| Scotland’s Net Zero Infrastructure | Scotland | This project enables CCS by linking the gathering of CO2 from industrial emitters around Grangemouth, with a pipeline to transport CO2 to St Fergus in Aberdeenshire, with the Acorn CCS Project. |
| Net Zero Teesside Project | Teesside | Net Zero Teesside is a Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) project. In partnership with local industry and world class partners, it aims to decarbonise a cluster of carbon-intensive businesses by as early as 2030. Each year, the project plans to capture up to 6 million tonnes of CO2 emissions equivalent to the annual energy use of up to 2 million UK homes. |
| Humber Industrial Decarbonisation Deployment Project (Humber-DP) | The Humber | Humber-DP will identify and develop potential anchor projects to maximise emission reductions in the most appropriate, timeliest, cost effective and efficient manner and develop world leading industrial CO2 transport and storage system |
| HyNet Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) | North West | HyNet was conceived in 2016 as a hydrogen / CCUS project to provide a decarbonisation pathway in the North West. The HyNet CCUS network will provide the infrastructure to transport and store the carbon dioxide produced as a by-product of the hydrogen production process. |
| South Wales Industrial Cluster (SWIC) | Wales | SWIC will identify process options to reduce carbon emissions, options for Carbon Capture Usage and Storage (CCUS) and for an infrastructure backbone to enable large scale CO2 emissions reduction across Wales and beyond. |
| Green Hydrogen for Humber | The Humber | “Green Hydrogen for Humberside” will lead to the production of renewable hydrogen, at the Gigawatt (GW) scale, from polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolysis. This will be distributed to a mix of industrial energy users in Immingham, Humberside. Humberside, the UK’s largest cluster by industrial emissions (12.4MtCO2 per year), contributes £18bn to the national economy each year and has access to a large renewable resource from offshore wind in the North Sea. |
The six winners of phase one will now be able to compete for a total of up to £131m in phase two of the competition, for projects that will deliver, or support delivery of, significant emissions reductions in a UK industrial cluster by 2030.
Full list of Roadmaps competition winners
| Name of project | Region | Description |
| Net Zero Tees Valley – Decarbonising the Full Cluster: Roadmap Pathfinder | Tees valley | Net Zero Tees Valley will allow the industrial net-zero roadmap of the Teesside Industrial Cluster to be extend. This will develop a deliverable and holistic plan for regional deep decarbonisation which can be adopted by Industry, Government, Local Government, finance sector and inward investors. |
| Scotland’s Net Zero Roadmap (SNZR) | Scotland | SNZR builds upon work by SCCS in Carbon Capture and Storage research, and by the University of Strathclyde’s Centre for Energy Policy in identifying decarbonisation pathways that deliver economic prosperity, and applies them to a high value industrial cluster. |
| Humber Industrial Decarbonisation Roadmap | The Humber | HIDR will enable the Humber’s large industrial emitters, low carbon infrastructure providers and other stakeholders to develop a shared approach to achieving net zero by 2040. |
| North West Hydrogen and Energy Cluster: Route to Net Zero | North West | This project’s primary focus is on the industrial emissions of Cheshire, parts of North East Wales, Warrington, Liverpool City Region and Greater Manchester. |
| South Wales Industrial Cluster (SWIC) | Wales | The Phase-1 work will establish NZC options for SWIC members; including two of the largest industrial UK CO2 emitters, several large sites and several medium sized sites. This will allow the several mini-local clusters to form, before growing and combining with each other, ultimately merging to connect to the large coastal CO2 emitters, at which point large scale CCU-CCS options exist creating value from residual regional carbon. |
| Repowering the Black Country | Midlands | This study will specifically identify the best ways to deliver zero carbon power to local businesses using local resources, including commercial waste and renewable energy. Small-scale, unobtrusive power stations, located on brownfield sites, will deliver electricity and heat to nearby homes and businesses. |
These winners will now be able to compete for a total of up to £8 million in phase two of the competition to develop decarbonisation roadmaps for major UK industrial clusters.
