Research centre on track for Spring opening
October 2011
Pyrolysis and gasification facilities will provide valuable and low-carbon fuels of the future
Orders worth £2.5 million have been placed for equipment to be used in the new national research centre being developed in Middlesbrough.
Wilton Centre tenant The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) and Tata Steel
are developing the facility after signing a Memorandum of Understanding last year.
Costing £5 million to establish, the centre will advance high-temperature technologies and pioneer new ways of turning waste products into fuels and raw materials needed by industries such as energy generation, construction, steel and waste management.
Orders have been placed for the pilot scale industrial plant – a gasifier and a pyrolysis unit. The equipment will be housed in an open access facility available to companies wanting to test or develop high-temperature processes to prove they can work on a commercial scale.
The high-temperature pilot facility being built at Tata Steel’s Teesside Technology Centre, in Grangetown, is due to open next spring and employ at least 30 people by 2020.
CPI Director of Strategy, Dr Graham Hillier, said: “The new centre will play a leading role in developing technologies to support the low-carbon economy of the future.”
Mark Sexton, of Tata Steel’s Research, Development and Technology division, said: “This is an exciting and important new facility which should allow breakthrough technologies to be developed. This new centre will provide innovation and technology support to businesses in the Tees Valley as well as helping to attract other companies to the region.”
The project received £2.5 million from One North East through the Tees Valley Industrial Programme. Tata Steel and the CPI is investing the remaining £2.5m.