Process industry technologies get government funding 21 September 2012

Seventy UK firms, universities and research organisations are to share more than £7 million of government funding for research aimed at the development and commercialisation of innovative approaches to sustainable manufacturing in the process industries.

The Technology Strategy Board and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council are to invest the funding in 17 major collaborative R&D projects, with participant contributing a further £7 million.

The projects will be led by C-Tech Innovation, Centre for Process Innovation, Dynamic Extractions, Environmental Pulp Products, GlaxoSmithKline, Imerys (UK), Imperial Chemical Industries, Industrial Microwave Systems, Johnson Matthey, Perceptive Engineerin, PhosphonicS, Plant Integrity, Procter & Gamble Technical Centres, Scionix, Syrris, Unilever and Yorkshire Process Technology.

"Innovation in sustainability is vital for the continued success and growth of the UK process industry and this R&D will lead to innovations in manufacturing that will improve economic performance, benefit the environment and have a positive social impact," comments Iain Gray, chief executive of the Technology Strategy Board.

"Supporting sustainable processes in manufacturing is how we can grow, both in our knowledge and economically," states professor David Delpy, chief executive of the EPSRC.

"These projects and the businesses developing sustainable processes will, in turn, deliver new opportunities for further research, as well as the financial and environmental returns," he adds.

The projects themselves include: development of a low-energy baking system based on a two-step process consisting of an accelerated conventional baking stage followed by a novel post-baking cooling step; the development of novel approaches to reducing and eliminating solvents in paints; and work on a novel process for electro-polishing aerospace castings, using ionic liquids.

Meanwhile, a collaborative project led by Industrial Microwave Systems is aimed at developing a cost-effective, continuous, conveyor-based, solid-state microwave system for producing low-carbon concretes incorporating higher levels of waste products.

Brian Tinham

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