Net-Zero industrial clusters

Soggy ‘black bag’ household waste isn’t the ideal fuel for power stations. But higher quality refuse-derived fuel, that includes industrial and construction waste specially sorted at material recycling facilities can make for more efficient energy generation. Combined with carbon capture and storage, this waste-to-energy technology can help achieve net zero.

At WSP, we work on all kinds of waste-to-energy plants. We’re also exploring ways of pushing the boundaries of what can be done with plastics waste – to turn it into a valuable resource such as a fuel or feedstock instead of burning it.

CHP is ideal for industrial clusters’ dense networks of consumers – from companies that use high-temperature steam in industrial processes to those that simply want to heat their buildings.

How can CHP go zero-carbon? A decarbonised fuel such as hydrogen is key. Gas turbines can already run on a blend of hydrogen and natural gas without many modifications, and hydrogen turbines are in development.

It will also be vital to make efficient use of the high-pressure steam produced in CHP plants – both for generating electricity and other uses, including steam reformation of hydrogen.

We are working with a client in the Middle East on a project that involves installation of new steam turbines on an existing power plant that also provide steam to a desalination plant. The desalination plant is being decommissioned and we are developing options to make use of the extra steam.

WSP is already enabling industry clients to make use of directly connected solar PV plants next door to their factories. Energy doesn’t get much more local than that.

For example, we supported Tata Global Beverages in Hartlepool, where Tetley teabags are made, in commissioning a behind-the-meter solar plant and ensuring suitable technical protections were in place to avoid any disruption to the factory’s operation.

In Leeds, we’ve designed a park-and-ride scheme with car port integrated solar PV. This charges a battery which, in turn, charges electric buses and private vehicles. Industrial organisations could follow this approach, installing solar panels in car parks to empower their employees to choose zero-carbon transport or provide power to other on-site uses.

How can construction go carbon-free? Design approaches, materials used and construction sites will all have to change.

Designs will become modular, permanently temporary and super adaptable for future uses.

We’ll be using wood much more. Innovations in cement and steel manufacturing will cut out carbon emissions by using new raw materials and hydrogen. Carbon capture will most likely be a key solution.

Finally, construction sites will be zero waste and, of course, serviced by all-electric equipment running on zero carbon power.

Industry has a big opportunity to cut CO2 emissions from transport. Solutions can take many forms – including the large-scale electrification of fleet operated vehicles and pioneering hydrogen-powered heavy goods vehicles and trains.

WSP’s work with owners and developers on fleet strategy includes advising a blue-chip company on introducing the charging infrastructure to add 600 electric vehicles to its fleet by 2025.

The opportunity also extends beyond companies’ own fleets to low-emission deliveries and servicing. Our ongoing work with England’s Economic Heartland is considering a decarbonised future particularly for the first and last mile delivery sector and we are advising private sector clients on the opportunities in the logistics sector.

Despite removal of subsidies and challenging planning policy, onshore wind can play an important role in decarbonising industry – thanks to the falling cost of the technology.

Some companies with large energy usage are building their own wind turbines on their own land to feed renewable energy into plants behind the meter. Others are entering into corporate power purchase agreements to buy 100% of the energy from a wind farm development, making that development viable for investors.

Opportunities for building wind turbines in industrial areas exist across the UK. At the Port of Sheerness, for example, WSP’s engineers have helped operators install four 2.5MW turbines beside the area used to receive shipments of luxury cars.

How will people get to work in a net zero industrial cluster? Future mobility models – with demand-responsive shared travel, zero-emission public transport, micro-mobility options and better provision for walking and cycling – all have a fundamental part to play.

This shift in mobility will be fuelled by electricity across all modes and, for heavy-duty cycles such as buses, trucks and trains, hydrogen. Recent figures show that 4.4% of all cars and vans registered in the UK are now plug-in, with half of those battery electric. Electric and hydrogen fuel-cell buses are already on our street, so the journey to zero-carbon is well underway.

Against this backdrop, we are helping bodies such as Transport for the South East navigate through the actions required to achieve the vision of zero-carbon mobility with what could be a complex future mobility landscape.

There could be an untapped source of low-carbon energy right under your feet. Where ground conditions are suitable, geothermal energy can be used to heat or cool industrial buildings. And, with open loop systems, it can be done in a confined area with a very small footprint – without burying long lengths of pipe.

Instead, water is taken from an abstraction borehole, passed through a heat exchanger to warm the water in the building’s plumbing system and then put back into the ground through a recharge borehole a short distance away. The ground does the heat transfer.

We are currently exploring the potential for open-loop geothermal to heat commercial and other mixed use buildings in Colchester’s Northern Gateway development.

Achieving net zero carbon emissions requires organisations to consider every aspect of the way they source and use energy.

Low-carbon electricity from nuclear, offshore wind and solar accounts for an increasing proportion of the generation mix (30% will come from offshore wind alone by 2030). So, electrifying as much of their operations as possible – from road transport to industrial furnaces – offers organisations a path to decarbonisation.

But they also have a role to play in balancing supply and demand by implementing measures such as battery storage or demand-side response that shuts down processes when demand is high.

At WSP we call this creating a 360-degree energy strategy.

Industry can reduce CO2 emissions through low-carbon products, manufacturing and processes. The key is accurately quantifying carbon, assessing every part of the lifecycle and devising long-term reduction strategies. For petrochemicals company SABIC, we developed a roadmap to reducing corporate carbon intensity by 25% by 2025.

With resources constrained, industry will have to embrace the circular economy. Waste must become a resource, while energy consumption must be factored into every decision. And the natural environment must be enhanced – with the added benefit of carbon sequestration – through pioneering biodiversity offsetting projects such as that at Duqm Refinery in Oman, for which WSP provided expertise.

An increasingly flexible and local electricity grid creates an opportunity for industry.

As more renewable generation comes online, more technical and commercial solutions – such as battery storage, synchronous condensers and more flexible services – will be needed to keep the grid balanced. Market changes mean that balancing the grid will become the responsibility of companies that own and operate it at the level of distribution, as well as the transmission system operator.

Devolving responsibility will enable industrial and domestic consumers to provide vital balancing services such as constraint management through more flexible use of their existing assets and new investments such as electric vehicles. With the rise of peer-to-peer energy trading, more consumers will become prosumers – producing energy as well as consuming it.

Not every sector will be able to eliminate all CO2 emissions, so achieving net zero will require negative emissions in some sectors.

This is where bioenergy comes in – burning wood pellets in power stations such as Drax, and then capturing and storing the CO2 produced. New trees planted to replace those felled for biomass would remove more CO2 from the atmosphere, ensuring that the net result is negative emissions.

These negative emissions then offset those from hard-to-reduce sectors such as aviation, ensuring the UK can still achieve net zero.

Hydrogen is the prime candidate to replace natural gas. With potential to both fuel industries - such as glassmaking - and to heat homes, it emits only water when burnt. And because hydrogen can be transported and stored in similar ways to natural gas, it can respond to seasonal fluctuations in demand.

Using renewable energy to produce ‘green’ hydrogen through electrolysis, has niche applications – such as on-site production for fuel-cell electric buses or trains. However, industrial processes and domestic heating are likely to rely on steam reformation of methane to produce ‘blue’ hydrogen – with the resulting CO2 captured and stored.

Across many of the process industries, assets are ageing. Needing to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide we put into the atmosphere, organisations are faced with either retrofitting their existing facilities or building new ones.

Retrofitting low-carbon technology such as low-energy motors into factories could reduce running costs in the long term, but it requires capital investment now.

Where new build is the most cost-effective way forward, offsite manufacturing and modular construction can reduce waste, provide schedule certainty and overcome technical challenges.

To achieve net zero, the UK will need to capture and store CO2 emissions from biomass power generation, large-scale hydrogen production and chemical processes in industries such as cement manufacture.

While some captured CO2 could become feedstock in industrial processes, the majority will have to be piped offshore and stored under the seabed in disused oil and gas fields or saline aquifers.

Locations with the right infrastructure and geology could receive shipments from places with less favourable conditions. Industries in South Wales, for example, could ship CO2 to Merseyside for storage in depleted offshore gas fields.

Storing energy can enable large power users to avoid peak Triad charges – this is the levy paid during the highest three half-hour periods of demand on the networks over the winter months. Storing energy is also a potential source of future revenue - by helping to balance the grid.

Today, batteries are the most promising energy-storage technology. With early-adopting investors beginning to go ahead with schemes, WSP has worked with firms including EDF, Centrica and Kiwi Power on direct battery connections to industry.

As more renewable energy comes into the grid, more battery storage will be needed. This could see other storage technologies – using flywheels, hydrogen production or gravity based solutions – become commercially viable.