Carbon Trust initiative targets process industries

London - Process companies Britvic, Highland Spring and Tarmac are among the first companies to work with the Carbon Trust in its Industrial Energy Efficiency Accelerator (IEEA) - a £15-million programme designed to cut carbon, reduce costs and make UK manufacturing more competitive. The trio were joined last week by trade bodies including the Food and Drink Federation and Dairy UK, and leading players in the dairy, bakery and confectionery industries. Tesco is also backing the programme.

Through the IEEA, the Carbon Trust aims to transform the traditional sector-specific processes that underpin British manufacturing. In partnership with industry leaders, the organisation will identify and demonstrate new, lower-carbon solutions that can be replicated widely across each sector. The programme is expected to reduce energy costs for businesses by more than half a billion pounds and to cut carbon emissions by more than three million tonnes and help businesses respond to the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) Energy Efficiency Scheme which comes into effect in April 2010.

Dr Mark Williamson, Carbon Trust director of innovations, said: "More than a quarter of the UK's carbon emissions come from industry and we've got to find new opportunities to reduce them. The way to make truly substantial cuts is to get to the very heart of manufacturing. By rethinking the way manufacturers operate from the ground up we plan to spearhead a low carbon industrial revolution that will not only reduce emissions but will also increase demand for innovation, generate jobs and cut costs."

Manufacturers of plastic bottles, animal feed and asphalt recently partnered with the Carbon Trust in the pilot phase of the IEEA. Through detailed analysis of their energy consumption they identified potential to reduce their energy costs and carbon emissions by an average of 28%. The Carbon Trust is now inviting companies in those industries to collaborate in research, development and demonstration that will establish the business case for commercialising lower-carbon manufacturing processes. It is offering £250,000 match funding to partners in each sector.

Trade bodies and businesses from around 25 different sectors are expected to participate in the IEEA over a four-year period. The Food & Drink Federation (FDF), for example are set to explore opportunities for improved recycling of heat from industrial ovens and more energy efficient methods of producing confectionery.

Stephen Reeson, head of climate change and energy policy at the FDF, said: "The food and drink manufacturing industry is the largest manufacturing sector in the country and reducing our environmental impact is a key objective of our members. The Carbon Trust's Industrial Energy Efficiency Accelerator programme is a welcome additional support initiative in tackling sector specific energy issues. Working with our members and the Carbon Trust we look forward to improving the industry's energy efficiency."

Britvic is one of the companies working with the Carbon Trust to identify specific parts of the manufacturing process where energy use, and therefore carbon emissions, can be reduced and then use this insight to find lower-carbon ways of producing plastic bottles.

Graham Dale, head of quality, safety and environment at Britvic said: "We have made significant progress over the last few years in reducing our energy consumption so finding new opportunities was becoming increasingly challenging. This programme has helped us look beyond conventional ways of reducing energy consumption to explore new ideas within our core manufacturing processes. As a result, we have identified further potential to reduce our carbon emissions and costs and improve the efficiency of our operations."

Meanwhile, Dr Martyn Kenny, head of sustainability at Tarmac, said: "We are tackling the issue of carbon reduction holistically, by managing our own carbon footprint; by developing lower-carbon products and solutions; and by helping our customers, supply chain and employees do the same. The project we worked on as part of IEEA focused on detailed monitoring and analysis of asphalt manufacture to pinpoint opportunities for carbon saving and help spread best practice throughout our industry."

The collaborative IEEA programme follows a three stage process:

1. Analysis of typical energy use within an industry and identification of opportunities for reduction.

2. Collaboration with companies and innovators to research, develop and demonstrate new, lower carbon, sector-specific processes and technologies. Fifty such projects are planned over the next four years.

3. Dissemination of knowledge to encourage industry-wide take-up of new technologies and processes.

Stage 2 programmes in the Animal Feed, Aggregates and Plastic bottle blow-moulding sectors will include research into the innovation opportunities:

* A new heating method to melt plastic in the manufacture of plastics bottles, which could save up to 70% of energy currently used in the process, 49,000 tonnes of CO2 per year and £9m.

* Development of cold mix asphalt that could save up to 80% of energy currently used in traditional asphalt, reducing CO2 emissions by 37,500 tonnes and saving the industry over £5.5m.

* New software to calculate the energy cost of processing different ingredients for animal feed, which could save 10,000 tonnes of CO2 per year and £1.6m.

* More efficient machines for pressing animal feed, with the potential to save over 30,000 tonnes of CO2 and reduce the industry's energy bill by £5.6m.