The UK government provides new funds to help industry cut down on fossil fuel use and slash carbon emissions.
On 31 May 2022, the UK Government announced the provision of £31m in funding to industry to help reduce fossil fuel use and cut carbon emissions. This is another step on the path toward the government’s target of achieving net-zero by 2050.
In a previous news release by Sustainable Future news, we saw the Group of Seven (G7) ministers of advanced economies join together at Germany’s G7 Climate, Energy, and Environment Ministerial press conference. The ministers issued an official bulletin (communiqué), within which they reaffirmed commitments focusing on reducing carbon emissions and made further statements supporting accelerating the green energy transition.
The G7 ministers committed to achieving predominantly decarbonised electricity sectors by 2035 and reaffirmed their commitment to eliminate inefficient fossil fuel subsidies by 2025.
Developing red diesel alternatives
In this announcement, the government includes funding of over £6.6m to help industry move away from using red diesel. The funding forms part of the Red Diesel Replacement competition.
Red Diesel is a gas oil used in off-road vehicles and machinery. Red diesel is so called because it is blended with a red dye to mark it as a rebated fuel (or fuel taxed at a lower rate) and to allow law enforcement agencies to identify if it is being used illegally.
As we accelerate the UK’s energy independence by boosting clean, home-grown, affordable energy, it’s crucial that our industries reduce their reliance on fossil fuels.
The government will invest its funds into implementing sustainable alternatives to red diesel (such as e-fuels and green hydrogen) and technologies that can capture and store energy (such as waste heat) given off by machinery and vehicles. Capturing this energy may help to make industrial energy use more efficient.
Switching to cleaner power sources
Over £5.5m in funding will be used to develop technologies to enable industry to switch from high carbon fuels to cleaner power sources such as hydrogen, electrification, or fuel from biomass and waste products. Winners of Phase 1 of the Industrial Fuel Switching competition will be awarded the funding.
It’s competition time for carbon capture
The Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) supports the deployment of advanced carbon capture, usage, and storage (CCUS) technologies. Such technologies allow for the capture and storage of carbon emissions from industrial processes. Winners of the Carbon Capture Usage and Storage (CCUS) Innovation 2.0 competition will receive a share of over £12 m for CCUS projects ready for deployment by 2030. Entrants could stand to win £7.3 million in the next round of the competition.
Companies receiving a proportion of the funding include:
- Expert flywheel technologist, PUNCH Flybrid, will receive £460,000 to deliver a high power electrically driven flywheel energy storage system
- Leading steel manufacturer, British Steel, will receive £161,050 for a study into switching its manufacturing processes from natural gas to green hydrogen
- Biotechnology company, Ingenza, will receive £443,632 to develop a new type of CO2 conversion technology
Other fund recipients include NanoSUN, Libertine, Dolphin N2, Deep Branch Biotechnology, and SSE Thermal.
We are delighted to have been awarded further funding to continue to build on our work with MAHLE Powertrain. We believe Libertine’s technology will play an essential role on the path to net-zero for heavy duty powertrains, complementing battery electrification with clean power from renewable fuels.
