TSB announce new renewables innovation centre in Glasgow

The Technology Strategy Board (TSB) has today announced that the UK-wide consortium bid from Carbon Trust, National Renewable Energy Centre (Narec) and Ocean Energy Innovation has been selected to play a pivotal role in setting up the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult. The new Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult will have it’s headquarters in Glasgow – with the operational centre in Northumberland close to the National Renewable Energy Centre (Narec). The location in Glasgow will be alongside a number of organisations with complementary interests in the International Technology and Renewable Energy Zone (ITREZ). ITREZ already incorporates Strathclyde University’s £89 million Technology Innovation Centre and has secured industry partners including Scottish and Southern Energy, ScottishPower and the Weir Group.

The new Catapult will focus on technologies applicable to offshore wind, tidal and wave power. It will also build strong links with centres of excellence, such as the European Marine Energy Centre and Wave Hub.

The Catapult, expected to open for business in the summer of 2012, will bring together knowledge, expertise and state of the art facilities to help UK businesses innovate and find new ways to capture and use the power from offshore renewable energy sourcesand may also advise the UK government on its renewable energy policies.

FULL ANNOUNCEMENT HERE

Speeding up small scale anaerobic digestion

February 2012: New project to speed up the development and proving of small scale anaerobic digestion technologies.

Anaerobic digestion has been cited by the government as a way of reducing carbon emission, providing energy security and generating green jobs. It is a vital tool in achieving a low carbon future, and feasibility studies confirm the market demand and acceptance of anaerobic digestion (AD) technology. The potential of this technology has only been within reach of large, profitable organisations, but a new project aimed at bringing cutting-edge AD technologies to rural and smaller scale businesses is being launched to combat this.

The Small Scale Anaerobic Digestion Technology (SSAD-TECH) platform provides underpinning process technology for the development of a series of commercial products for the local treatment of organic waste to produce energy (either as biogas, heat or electricity) and digestate, which can be considered as a non-fossil fuel derived fertiliser.

A five-strong consortium is led by The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) and comprises CNG Services Ltd, Lyvennet Renewable Energy, Wardell Armstrong LLP and Field Science Limited. With grant funding from the government-backed Technology Strategy Board, the project works with a total budget of £880,000 and will run over two years. A part of the government’s High Value Manufacturing Catapult, CPI is home to existing anaerobic digestion development facilities and is ideally placed to coordinate, direct and deliver another successful project.

The innovative aspects of the SSAD-TECH system include:

The relatively small size (throughputs between 2500 and 5000 tonnes per annum)

Small footprint, enabling stand alone integration into existing sites and facilities

Modular build configuration, designed to meet the needs of the agricultural and food manufacturing sectors

Low capital cost (£350-500,000)

Short payback period (3-6 years)

Commercially viable plant at a small scale, 60-150kWe

Next generation digester technology, optimized for digester stability and performance efficiency.

FULL DETAILS FROM CPI WEBSITE (with further links)

TSB competition updates

TSB competitions page

Fuel cells and hydrogen: whole system integration
The Technology Strategy Board is to invest up to £7.5m in collaborative research and development projects involving fuel cells and hydrogen energy systems. They aim to accelerate the commercialisation of these products by linking them with other technologies to form complete low-carbon solutions.

One of the challenges facing fuel-cell and hydrogen technologies is to move from development to providing practical low-carbon solutions in combination with other energy and transport products. The aim of this competition is to encourage UK businesses developing fuel cells and hydrogen systems to work with partners to overcome the system integration challenges, to design complete solutions that can be easily used by customers and to gain an insight into the use of whole systems in realistic scenarios.

This is a two-stage open competition. Proposals must be collaborative and business-led and must clearly present the benefits to UK businesses. Successful projects will generally attract up to 50% public funding and we expect the total cost of each project to be £3m-5m.

Open date: 09 January 2012
Registration close date: 15 February 2012
Close date: 22 February 2012

Full details at TSB website
Download competition brief

Optimisation of anaerobic digestion
WRAP has a specific focus on the development and growth of a safe and sustainable AD industry in the UK and is working to deliver specific actions from Defra’s AD Strategy and Action Plan.
The aims for this competition are to:

Facilitate technology transfer from other industries that may have solved similar challenges to those currently facing the AD sector

Demonstrate the most effective proposals

Disseminate advice, data and best practice guidance to the sector to enable it to reap the benefits of the demonstration projects

Biogas – cheaper technologies for gas use, better gas storage options and a reduction in methane losses (covering both existing gas use options such as CHP and new technologies such as fuel cells or liquefaction)

Digestate – nutrient extraction and improving quality through technology or process optimisation, efficiencies in separation and application processes

Better uses of heat, inline quality monitoring and uses for CO2

Some key areas have been identified by the sector as requiring a specific focus: Pre-processing (ie reception and pre-treatment of feedstocks of all types); Inline or instant feedstock testing for contaminants, biogas yields, nutrient levels etc; Pre-treatment of feedstocks to improve digester operation, gas yields, digestate quality and/or manageability; Processing – improving efficiencies and reactor performance, inline monitoring of reactor performance and health, optimisation of digestion biology.

Open date: 09 November 2011
Close date: 21 December 2011

Full details at: www.wrap.org.uk
Download competition brief

TSB announce Offshore Renewable energy as the next Technoloy and Innovation centre

The Technology Strategy Board announce that the next technology and innovation centre to be created will be in offshore renewable energy.

Technology and innovation centres are a new approach to linking research with the practical needs of the business world. Once operational, the centres will produce innovations which could help to make the UK a world leader in a range of markets. A technology and innovation centre is a physical, business-focused centre where world-leading technologies and research capabilities are available to businesses to help them solve their commercialisation challenges and produce innovations which can be developed commercially.

The TSB will be seeking expressions of interest in participating in this centre in the summer of 2011.

Follow this link for the full announcement details….