[IMPORTANT UPDATE] Transition to Net Zero becomes Industrial Decarbonisation Group by Prof. Hanak

Thank you for being a valued subscriber to Transition to Net Zero . I initially launched this newsletter to share insights on net zero transition based on recent events, published literature and my research.

It's been quite a while since I published the last article on Unlocking the potential of waste-to-energy and CCUS synergy . This was primarily because I've been delivering research and commercial projects for the past few months, contributing to keynote talks, running a series of net zero webinars, and organising a virtual net zero feasibility seminar. On top of this, I decided to give back to the academic and consulting community by sharing my advice and expertise related to research skills and careers .

Yes, we're all busy, and it’s not a valid reason not to publish here. I want to keep adding value and raising awareness of net zero research. I believe this newsletter ticks these boxes - I've had multiple discussions and fruitful collaborative activities with you that originated with this newsletter.

Moreover, many of you often asked me about the recent progress on projects and events we run at NZIIC, funding opportunities for joint work, etc. Based on these discussions, I thought it could be helpful to expand the scope of this newsletter from being solely focused on the net zero insights to include other activities at my Industrial Decarbonisation Group (IDG).

Over the next few weeks, you will see a slight rebrand of the newsletter and my LinkedIn profile. I do hope that this revised scope of the newsletter will appeal to you and you will find it helpful.

Committing to open science

As you may have seen from my LinkedIn activity, I do believe that we should share our work as openly and widely as possible. We can see many open-access platforms coming along, such as osf.io or Octopus.ac . It’s important to note that some platforms might not be as reliable as others. Therefore, you need to select the platform that gives you all the features that you need, but also helps you make your research accessible.

For my research group, I decided to use an open science framework, osf.io . This was mainly because it offered me flexibility regarding what documents I could share and where I could share them. Also, it gives me an option to assign a DOI, a digital object identifier, to each of my documents. It does it for free, so that’s a plus. This is important because it provides me with a unique link to each of my documents, regardless of whether that is paper, database, software, or anything else. I think if each research group had at least one such depository, it would make science more open and accessible to everyone. That’s why you can find my depository over here: https://osf.io/r3sev/ . We have just started putting together about to get ready to see about complete projects over there, and we are slowly populating the data output from our projects.

Project(s) update

So that this issue of the IDG newsletter is not just an announcement of revision of the newsletter’s scope, I want to provide you with an update on some of our existing and completed projects at the Industrial Decarbonisation Group. I wouldn’t go into much detail, though, because I want to dedicate a specific newsletter issue to each of my current projects so that I can get into the details of each project.

Over the past few months, we have been awarded several projects, primarily for feasibility assessment of carbon capture, utilisation and storage technologies within Teesside Industrial Cluster.

First, we worked with Quorn, a meet-free meet alternative producer, to understand whether carbon capture is an option for them. Quorn Is a relatively small emitter of CO2 because it only produces a couple thousand tonnes of CO2 per year. Nevertheless, because of their commitment to sustainability, they wanted to understand whether carbon capture is an option. In the work funded by IDRIC (https://osf.io/cp5h9/ ), we considered two core retrofit scenarios: first for amine scrubbing and second on for calcium looping. We also considered an option to integrate the methanation process as a way to utilise CO2. This project showed that both amine scrubbing and calcium looping would shut in comparable economic performance. The former resulted in the cost of CO2 capture of about ￡128 per ton of CO2, and the latter in about ￡113 per ton of CO2 captured. The methanation case resulted in a significant increase in the cost, which, in terms of the cost of CO2 capture, was ￡378 per ton. This was primarily due to hydrogen cost, which, even at ￡2 per kilogram, resulted in about 50% of the total operating cost of the process.

Second, we have worked on integrating carbon capture into the waste-to-energy plant at Teesside. WtE is an important emitter of CO2 in the region, accounting for about 18% of the total emissions. In this project funded by UKCCSRC(https://osf.io/7jdw3/ ), we performed the techno-economic analysis of carbonate looping retrofit to WtE and developed a new concept for calcium combustion of municipal solid waste. Our study resulted in interesting results. It showed that integration of carbonate looping to existing systems would result only in a 7% increase in the level used of the cost of electricity. This was because the calcium looping was shown to increase the waste processing capacity of the existing system by about 85%, which positively impacted the economic visibility.

Third, We have worked with a start-up called Airhive to verify the economic viability of their direct air capture technology. This process uses calcium-based materials to separate CO2 directly from the air. Our assessment has shown that the cost of CO2 removals would be below ￡500 per ton, with the potential technological improvements with time.

In addition to working on CCUS projects, we have been awarded Research England Hydrogen Innovation Funding to drive the research and growth of the hydrogen economy in the region. This project is different to conventional research projects. It’s because we reached out to stakeholders to understand their research requirements and we have developed projects around their needs. As a result, I am leading the Fuel Choice Analysis For the Teesside Transport Sector (https://osf.io/ydg58/ ) project. In this project, we have mapped all the Transport movements across Tees Valley, including aviation, rail, heavy-duty vehicles, and consumer cars, To understand the total emissions in the region. Next, we will evaluate the alternative options for each sub-segment in the transport sector, considering electrification hydrogen and hydrogen derivatives. The overarching goal is to develop a science-based roadmap for the decarbonisation of transport in the region.

Finally, I am collaborating with the Connected Places Catapult on a project that focuses on the decarbonisation of rail station buildings. In this project, based on the Bristol Temple Mead case study, we are examining the Scope 1-3 emissions of the train station buildings. Although this is not directly within my area of expertise, it has allowed me to understand the built environment better and the opportunities and challenges of its decarbonisation. I’ve also learned that Scope 3 emissions are critical to the decarbonisation of such buildings, primarily because of people travel to and from the station. The output of the project will be an optimisation model that will help me determine the lowest-cost decarbonisation pathways for the train station.

End notes

I appreciate you've read this newsletter to this point, and I trust you like the new focus of the IDG newsletter. Please feel free to share comments and feedback. I aim to send this newsletter at least every month, but if there are any important and interesting updates, I will send it more often.

I also wanted to share that we do have funding available as a part of our Research England Hydrogen Innovation Project to solve industrial challenges related to the transition to a hydrogen economy. This could include desk research, feasibility studies, and some experimental work. The key requirement is that the project be applied to the Tees Valley region - if this interests you, do get in touch.

Until next time,

Dawid

About the author

Dawid Hanak is a Professor of Decarbonisation of Industrial Clusters at the Net Zero Industry Innovation Centre , Teesside University . He brings the world-leading expertise in process design, techno-economic, and life-cycle assessment to drive innovation in industrial decarbonisation. He led the successful delivery of research and commercial projects in industrial decarbonisation, attracting over ￡4m of external funding. As a trusted advisor to businesses, think tanks, and public bodies, Dawid is passionate about sharing his knowledge and empowering others.

He also founded Motivated Academic , a platform where researchers, engineers, and consultants can access resources and training to advance their research and business skills.

Are you ready to:

• Drive sustainable change in your industry?
• Sharpen your research and business skills?
• Connect with a supportive community of like-minded individuals?

Contact Dawid Hanak today to discuss your goals and explore how he can help you achieve them.