Teesside University experts collaborate in half-million-pound research project

Chemical engineering academics at Teesside University are working in collaboration on a research project to develop technology that will create cleaner energy from waste plants.

The team are working with filtration engineering company, Durham Filtration and their client Suez on the unique project ‘Carbon Capture Ready’, which has received half-a-million-pound funding from Innovate UK.

The project is one of three Teesside University’s projects that is receiving support from Innovate UK’s ‘Launchpad-Net Zero- CR&D-Tees Valley’ Programme to deliver ground-breaking net zero innovations in the region.

Dr Faizan Ahmad, Senior Lecturer in Chemical Engineering is academic lead from Teesside University and Dr Ben Dannat is industrial lead from Durham Filtration on this project to decarbonise the energy from waste plants.

In the mid-1990s, energy from waste plants were developed to provide valuable low carbon energy and reduce amounts of waste going to landfills. The usable energy produced has substantially grown over the years, as more energy from waste power plants joined the national power grid, and the waste collection and utilisation strategies improved.

Although, the energy from waste plants have been beneficial to both society and environment, they produce large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, mostly carbon dioxide. These emissions must be mitigated to reduce their direct impact on climate change and help the UK in achieving its net-zero ambitions.

This project will see Teesside University working with Durham Filtration and its client Suez to develop technology to accurately measure the composition of flue gas at energy-from-waste sites, thus enabling more efficient carbon capture.

Dr Ahmad said: “We are extremely optimistic about this project and believer it will make a significant impact in terms of coupling carbon capture units with energy from waste plants. The aim is to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions and make them as clean as the renewable sources like, solar and wind.”

The project will be carried out through Teesside University’s new £13.1m Net Zero Industry Innovation Centre (NZIIC) – a national centre of excellence for net zero technologies which is set to play a key role in the delivery of the UK’s net zero ambitions.

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