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CPI, Tata Steel to Develop High-Temp Research Center
11/04/2010 - The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) and Tata Steel have signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a new national High Temperature Innovation Center at Tata Steel’s Teesside Technology Center.
The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) and Tata Steel have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish a new national High Temperature Innovation Center (HTIC) at Tata Steel’s Teesside Technology Center (TTC).
Under the MoU, CPI will create an open access innovation and research facility centered around two new pilot plants to be installed on the TTC site. The new plants will extend the existing capabilities of the site to carry out research and development work in the fields of novel sources of fuel and energy, the recovery of raw materials, and reductions in the amounts of organic wastes produced. Equipment to be installed comprises a 350-kg pyrolysis oven and a 2-meter-diameter fully flexible gassifier.
These facilities will be supported with access to Tata Steel’s existing high-temperature process knowledge and experience, which will in turn be integrated with CPI’s knowledge of the process industries, to provide a “one-stop shop” for high-temperature technology and process development.
This £5 million project has received £2.5 million investment from One North East through the Tees Valley Industrial Program, which is helping to accelerate industrial transition in the area and help the region to seize new and emerging opportunities in low carbon and advanced manufacturing.
The Department for Business, UK Trade & Investment, and One North East have been working closely with the two partners for several months on the HTIC Project. A team from CPI and Tata Steel RD&T has collaborated on the detail of the proposal as well as on the supporting business model, which One North East approved last month.
CPI Director of Strategy, Dr. Graham Hillier, said: “The creation of the HTIC will provide the U.K. with an asset that is suitable for use by a range of companies using and developing high-temperature technologies. We are particularly keen on transferring knowledge between industries and on supporting the scale-up of novel technologies. By giving organizations access to the infrastructure and skills of CPI and Tata Steel TTC, we will be enabling the U.K. to increase its capability to transform research ideas into valuable commercial processes.”
The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) is a national technology innovation center offering market and technology expertise along with cutting-edge development assets to help its public and private sector clients build and prototype the next generation of products, processes, and services quickly and efficiently, and with minimal risk.
Tata Steel Research Development & Technology has technology centers in Teesside and Rotherham in the U.K., IJmuiden in the Netherlands, and Jamshedpur in India. The work carried out by its scientists, researchers, and engineers focuses on process and product innovations, enhancing the Group’s competitiveness by improving the quality, applicability, and sustainability of steels. RD&T collaborates with universities and research institutes all over the world, as well as with major customers in the automotive, transport, construction, and packaging markets.
The Tees Valley Industrial Program (TVIP) is a £60m investment over two years from One North East and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) specifically to support the area’s industrial transition to low carbon and advanced manufacturing, which is expected to create an estimated 3000 new jobs in the short to medium term and over 10,000 jobs in the long term.
