Q: Please briefly explain your role, involvement, and experience with regards to industrial decarbonisation
Ben Burggraaf (BB): I’m a chartered mechanical engineer, with over 20 years’ experience in industrial energy consumption & cost optimisation and carbon reduction. I’m currently the Chief Executive Officer for Net Zero Industry Wales (NZIW), which works in partnership with business and academic partners operating in a wide range of energy and carbon intensive industries to enable the decarbonisation their industrial processes.
Amongst the priorities of NZIW will be to assist industry in developing Net Zero aligned pathways, aggregating the individual company plans to sector specific pathways and supporting the coordination of regional infrastructure to achieve this objective.
Rachel Sutton (RS): I am the Project Manager for HyNet, a major industrial decarbonisation project based in the North West of England and North Wales. HyNet uses a dual approach of hydrogen and CCS to enable existing industry to reduce CO2 emissions. I work for Progressive Energy, an energy consultancy and the lead integration partner for HyNet.
Chris Robinson (CR): I am consultant engineer working at Tees Valley Combined Authority as their Industrial Decarbonisation Project Manager. I have just delivered the TVCA “Cluster Plan” – the strategy roadmap to get the Tees Valley Industrial Cluster to Net Zero 2040.
Q: What is the top challenge facing your industry at present?
BB: Transitioning towards net zero and take full advantage of the opportunities that the Green Industrial Revolution brings, whilst operating in a globally competitive market.
RS: The main challenge, but also the main achievement so far, has been the collaboration between major industrial companies, government and regulatory bodies. The development of clusters is difficult but absolutely critical to deliver the infrastructure the UK needs to achieve net zero. Although we have progressed these industrial projects effectively to date, the next stages of project execution involving detailed technical integration, commercial agreements, major capital investment and successful start-up requires all parties to work towards a single goal of an integrated low carbon cluster.
CR: Industrial decarbonisation is a huge opportunity for growth – it is part of the UK’s action on the Climate Crisis, Levelling Up and Energy Security. It needs joined up -thinking to deliver industrial decarbonisation to maximise these opportunities. This is to a large degree being achieved; however there are a lot of projects that need to be coordinated to make this happen.
Q: How would you say your industry has evolved over the past two years?
BB: Industry have painfully become aware of its reliance on fossil fuels (mainly oil and natural gas) and affected its global competitiveness severely. On the other hand UK society has woken up on its reliance on the global supply chain and its lack of self-sufficiency. The transition to net zero, can provide a real opportunity to not only reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, but also strengthen the UK internal supply chain, to make the UK more resilient.
RS: Decarbonisation has moved from an aspiration to the development of real projects that will make a material difference to CO2 emissions. We are now planning to take FIDs on significant investments, which demonstrates industry’s real commitment to reducing carbon emissions. We are starting the transition from project development into project execution, which is a huge milestone.
CR: Hugely. The government’s Cluster Sequencing competition will enable 2x CCS schemes to be operating by 2027 – that’s not far away! – and another 2x by 2030. There are major projects and opportunities in blue and green hydrogen; energy from waste; negative emissions; e-fuels such as Sustainable Aircraft Fuel; and circular-economy fuels and chemicals putting our waste to good use.
Q: What developments are going on in your industry that may have an impact on the development of future approaches to decarbonisation?
BB: The key development in Wales is the exciting opportunity that Floating Offshore Wind (FLOW) brings to Wales, which could provide industry in Wales, for the first time in 40+ years, access to an abundant source of energy. In a similar way that coal drove the original industrial revolution, this renewable source of energy has the potential to fully displace fossil fuels beyond 2050. However to keep global warming well below 2 degrees, there is a need to accelerate decarbonisation and therefore in the South Wales Industrial Cluster they are actively developing carbon capture & storage projects, which includes the production of blue hydrogen and shipping of CO2 to a remote storage site.
RS: Developments in government policy have an enormous impact on how industries will choose to decarbonise. Project execution schedules specifically are heavily driven by the timeline for business model development and implementation. Regulatory bodies are also starting to development standards and recommendations for hydrogen and CCS, which will influence the design choices made by our project partners. Although the energy landscape is regularly changing, we need to be able to look beyond the 1-5 year priorities to realise our net zero ambitions.
CR: The CCS schemes will be a major contribution to reducing the UK’s CO2 emissions, and if done right, will be an asset that the UK can sell to European partners. Between them, the UK and Norway have 75% of the available geological storage capacity in Europe.
Hydrogen, e-fuels, and circular-economy fuels from waste will enable decarbonisation not just in our industrial clusters, but across the UK as the new CO2-free fuels for our businesses, homes & transport.
Q: What will you be presenting at the seminar and how will this benefit participants?
BB: I will be presenting on NZIW’s approach on supporting the industrial clusters and our members in Wales, the work done in the South Wales Industrial Cluster year to date and our ambitions for the future.
RS: I will be presenting on the HyNet project, giving an overview of the project and discussing some of our achievements to date and challenges over the next few years. HyNet is a dual approach cluster (CCS and low carbon hydrogen) but I will primarily focus on the hydrogen element. I hope this will give participants some insight into our ambitions and spark some discussion on how participants can support.
CR: I’ll be talking about the Tees Valley Cluster Plan – our roadmap to Net Zero 2040 in the industrial cluster. I’ll be talking about the benefits it brings, the challenges and the policy barriers that need to be unlocked to optimise this opportunity.
Q: Which other speakers and presentations are you looking forward to hearing at the forthcoming seminar?
BB: I’m looking forward to hearing from speakers that provide a different perspective to the decarbonisation challenge, whilst providing pragmatic solutions to solving this challenge that can be implemented in the short term and create the belief that the challenge can be met.
RS: I’m looking forward to the roundtable discussions; I’m really interested to hear the passion and innovation of the event participants. HyNet has recognised the need for both reskilling the existing workforce, and the challenges of skill shortages, notably within the construction supply chain. A single project cannot resolve this national issue, and I’m keen to hear proposals from others on how we tackle this.
CR: Chris Thackeray – the Dept Director at BEIS (ESNZ) for Power CCUS - is one of the linchpins of industrial decarbonisation in the UK. Industrial decarbonisation in the UK cannot happen without his and his colleagues’ work.
Q: Why is it important for engineers and industry to come together at this event and share best practice?
BB: The transition to net zero and achieve a decarbonisation rate that will keep global warming well below 2 degrees, will require collaboration between organisations and multiple (possible competing technologies) to be deployed in parallel. There is no room for polarized discussions about which low-carbon technology is best, but requires immediate, pragmatic action to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and decarbonise at a rate that meets our legally binding targets. This means we will get to it right first time and this conference provides a great platform to allow industry & engineers to openly discuss the trade-offs, risks and opportunities. This builds trust and common understanding, which is key to drive the right culture.
RS: Industrial decarbonisation cannot be achieved by one company or sector. It requires a full range of efforts, from research and innovation in academia and startups, frameworks and funding support from government, to investment and collaboration from industry. We are breaking new ground with projects like these, and there is huge opportunity to learn from each other and share expertise to make sure we can decarbonise as quickly as possible.
The Decarbonising the Industrial Clusters for Net-Zero 2040 seminar will be taking place on 18 April 2023 at the Argyll Ruane Engineering Training Centre in Sheffield.
Join this seminar to:
- Learn about the variety of ongoing opportunities in decarbonisation
- Network within this engineering community and discover opportunities for the UK supply chain which will be at the forefront of engineering activity throughout the journey to net-zero
- Gain a broad appreciation of current decarbonisation projects and the challenges they face
- Participate in one of our roundtables addressing the skills and resources needed to support future decarbonisation projects
- Take the opportunity to join a site visit of the Translational Energy Research Centre (TERC)
To book your place, please visit the event website.