On Delivering Net Zero The UK has committed to decarbonising its electricity system by 2035 and delivering Net Zero emissions by 2050. To achieve these goals, what are the main challenges facing UK industry, including the Teesside cluster? ‘The main challenge is around the systems that enable businesses to work together. Decarbonisation is a complex project and needs to be considered at scale – at the level of cities or industrial clusters.

Anglo American bring material from their mining facility through a custom-built tunnel under the North York Moors to their processing facility at Wilton International. Anglo American chose Wilton International because it met their requirement for the lowest environmental impact possible. ';" class="embed-container" style="background-image: url('https://res.cloudinary.com/wilton/image/upload/v1638371381/jenwilliamsangloamerican.jpg');background-repeat:no-repeat;background-size:cover;"

UK motorists have seen a move towards a more environmentally friendly way to travel with the introduction of E10 standard petrol in September 2021. The ‘E’ in E10 petrol is ethanol, a form of alcohol which is blended with petrol to create a fuel that helps reduce CO2 emissions from vehicles, compared with standard petrol. E10 became the standard petrol on most British forecourts from September 2021, with Northern Ireland adopting the change in early 2022.

The company has opened a new £1.3m UK headquarters facility close to its biorefinery on the Wilton International site. The move means around 20 staff working at a leased former headquarters in Yarm will join the 80-strong team at the industrial site. Dr Thomas Kirchberg, Deputy Chairman of the supervisory board of CropEnergies cutting the ribbon assisted by Peter Kay, the Ensus UK Operations Director. In the background (left to right) are Jürgen Böttcher, Grant Pearson, Commercial Director of Ensus UK and Dr Georg von Graevenitz.

Teesside is at the heart of the UK's Net Zero 2050 Strategy. Here, Sembcorp Energy UK's Andy Koss and Matthew Scrimshaw, and PD Ports' Jerry Hopkinson, talk about ambitious decarbonisation goals and investments for Wilton International and Teesport - working with customers to demonstrate a clear road map to net zero carbon... ';" class="embed-container" style="background-image: url('https://res.cloudinary.com/wilton/image/upload/v1635934237/rising-to-the-decarbonisation-challenge.jpg');background-repeat: no-repeat;"

Perhaps the first thing a visitor to Wilton International notices is the sheer scale of the site. At 2,000 acres (809 hectares) it’s vast, and home to an array of large-scale industrial operations including green energy generation, chemicals manufacturing, biofuels production and plastics recycling. Wilton International began as an integrated manufacturing site owned and operated by the chemicals giant ICI. Following that company’s business divestment programme in the 1990s and 2000s, the site’s energy and manufacturing assets were acquired by various international corporations.

Global factors are driving the growth of innovation in food production. Forecasters suggest that there will be a 70% increase in calorific demand by 2050 due to growth in world population2. At the same time, countries are committing to decreasing the output of greenhouse gases, more than 25% of which come from agriculture, forestry, and land-use change2. Additionally, in developed nations there is demand for alternative proteins led by a swing towards plant based vegetarian and vegan diets, with research showing that about 30% of UK adults plan to eat more meat-free products in 2021 than in 20203.

Whitetail Clean Energy is poised to be a 300MW NET Power station at Wilton International, Teesside, capturing and storing its carbon emissions offshore,creating a Net Zero emissions power plant. Major contribution to the ‘Levelling-up’ agenda with construction planned to commence following conclusion of engineering and the Governmental support process, potentially creating over 2,000 jobs during construction and 200 indirect and direct highly skilled jobs during operation. First backed by UK Government in 2012 for research and development, the project intends to scale up technology to full commercial deployment, supercharging UK progress towards becoming a Science and Technology powerhouse.

“This is a massive infrastructure project and Sembcorp are delighted that Wilton International has been chosen for part of this major investment,” Matthew said. “It’s one of the largest construction projects that Wilton International has seen in recent years and it’s very much in alignment with our commitment to decarbonise our industrial site. Two converter substations will be built on a 20-acre plot – the first for the Sofia Wind Farm, the second for the adjacent Dogger Bank C Offshore Wind Farm.

What does Biffa Polymers do here at Wilton International? “It’s a 24⁄7 operation at Wilton. 140 people are employed at the fully automated site and there’s huge demand for our products,” Chris explains. “The Wilton facility re-processes household and industrial waste plastics in 5 different processing streams, each doing something slightly different. The plastics we recycle here are called Polyolefins - polypropylene and high-density polyethylene (HDPE). Re-processing them means they can be re-used, saving waste and reducing the need for production of new plastic feedstocks.

The pressure on industry is coming from several directions. Consumers, inspired by media coverage including the BBC’s Blue Planet series, are demanding action on marine and other plastic waste. Government legislation and targets, including the UK’s 2050 goal for net zero carbon, mean that reducing waste and emissions is imperative. And now shareholders are adding to the pressure, by demanding increasingly robust sustainability and decarbonisation strategies from the businesses they invest in.

Whether it’s woody residues or non-edible agricultural crop residues, the chances are that cleantech innovators Nova Pangaea can turn your forestry and agriculture residues into something as valuable as it is environmentally friendly. “We process residue biomass from agricultural or forestry customers,” explains Neil Guilder, Nova Pangaea’s CFO. “That gives us valuable sugars and biocarbons such as biochar and activated carbon. The sugars can be turned into bioethanol, biopolymers and biochemicals, while the biochar can be used for soil enhancers, sustainable solid fuels, or be further processed to activated carbon, used for air and water filtration and green steel.

Sembcorp, who provide utilities including power, steam, various grades of water and industrial gases to customers on the site, are committed to ongoing decarbonisation and to being a key player in Net Zero 2050. They are currently engaged in a strategy process and evaluating technologies to achieve their sustainability goals. There is a way to go but here is the story so far: 2004: Efficiency improvements and a move away from oil One of Sembcorp’s first actions back in 2003 was to approve £20 million of funding to continue a project to integrate a 40MW gas turbine into the existing power station, improving efficiency and enabling the station to respond quickly and effectively to customer demand for large quantities of power and steam.

The circular economy – for sustainability and business efficiency A circular economy recognises that the resources we use are limited. In most cases, we can get more life out of materials by using and re-using them as efficiently as possible, whether that means linking up with other businesses to find a profitable use of by-products and waste, or designing goods that can be made with recycled materials. The idea of a circular economy is closely related to sustainability and being eco-friendly.

Grant Pearson - Commercial Director ENSUS, Mark Kenrick - Chairman of NEPIC and Ben Houchen - Tees Valley Mayor talk about Circular Economy businesses at Wilton International. Wilton International’s Circular Economy - sustainable fuels, sustainable energy, waste to fuels, waste to products, plastics recycling, clean growth. ';" class="embed-container" style="background-image: url('https://res.cloudinary.com/wilton/image/upload/v1579082236/Wilton_11.jpg');background-repeat:no-repeat;background-size:cover;"

Wilton International, on Teesside, is an industrial site with a distinctive business model. Sembcorp Energy UK generates power on site to provide resilient, cost-effective supplies for the businesses located there. And one of Sembcorp’s major projects in recent years, undertaken in partnership with Suez Waste Management, provides an example of how the site can deliver large-scale, complex industrial developments quickly and efficiently. It also demonstrates how the site’s logistics infrastructure and connectivity can meet the demanding requirements of businesses in the process sector.