£3.1mln for sustainable technologies in the Foundation Industries
The Materials Processing Institute has invested £3.1mln to support sustainable technologies and industrial decarbonisation in the Foundation Industries.
Left to right: Josh Chuter, Senior Researcher and Gerard Stephens, Head of Research and Technology
© Materials Processing InstituteEconoMISER, a UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)-funded programme, is the first project delivered by the Foundation Industry Sustainability Consortium (FISC).
It comprises leading research and technology centres, Henry Royce Institute, Glass Futures Ltd, Centre for Process Innovation, Lucideon and the Materials Processing Institute.
They are working together across five areas – alternative fuels, recycling and reuse, digital control and sensors, process optimisation, and sustainable materials development – with the aim to accelerate the Foundation Industries' road to sustainability and net-zero objectives.
The £3.1mln investment included:
- New equipment for the Materials Processing Institute’s Advanced Materials Development Centre to support mechanical testing, vacuum brazing and forging
- Hydrogen facilities to explore new routes to decarbonisation
- Equipment to help get valuable materials back into use through waste segregation, identifying opportunities for re-use and minimising associated costs
- Scaled-up hydrometallurgy laboratory capabilities
- Dedicated scale-up zones for client pilot-scale development and pre-production scale testing, together with research and development and process analysis
The second phase, EconoMISER 2, started in April and runs until March 2025.
This phase sees an additional £4.2mln awarded to the Materials Processing Institute for additional investment in equipment for research into enhanced alloys, cement, refractories characterisation, and augmented artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.
