In 2018, 7.3Mt of CO2 emissions were attributable to the UK concrete and cement sector; 4.4Mt of which were from clinker production. Researchers at the UoC have invented a new process of clinker production which has the potential to eliminate these emissions and enable the production of zero emission cement. The vision of Cement 2 Zero (C2Z) is to demonstrate this innovative process on an industrial scale for the first time. Described by Tarmac's Innovation Director as "an exciting option for future cement", Cambridge Electric Cement (CEC) is the world's first potentially zero emission cement, made by recycling used cement in a symbiotic process with steel recycling (Electric Arc Furnace - EAF). Existing methods of reducing cement emissions rely on supplementary materials, whilst these strategies reduce emissions, they cannot eliminate them entirely as a proportion of Portland Cement is still required. In contrast, the CEC process does not make a supplementary material, CEC can directly replace Portland Cement, enabling zero emission cement production. Not only will this transform cement production, but it will also diversify and expand steel recycling, and reduce process emissions. If UK steel recycling expands to process the 11Mt of steel scrap collected annually in the UK, CEC production could meet 25% of UK cement demand. There are currently no other options available for producing any cement without emissions. C2Z will investigate both the technical and commercial aspects of the process. This will involve Techno-Economic Assessment, Life Cycle Assessment, the construction of a prototype crusher for concrete disaggregation and installation of a novel slag cooling system. 20 tonnes of CEC will be produced in an EAF at CELSA, which will be evaluated and used in a demonstration UK construction project. C2Z unites research expertise from the Materials Processing Institute (the Institute), the UoC, and the complete supply chain including Tarmac, CELSA, Balfour Beatty, Atkins, Brewster Brothers (a fast-growing SME), and Day Aggregates. Using the EAF to recycle cement to reduce waste, energy, and emissions is a novel cross-sector technology adaption and the process has been proven and patented by the UoC (patent application: 2110292.6). This innovative industrial demonstrator will enable a significant step-change in cement production, the most important, prevalent, and CO2 emitting construction material. The project enables co-production of two critical materials, steel and cement, via one near zero emissions process, transforming a by-product of steel recycling into a valuable material.

Concrete's main carbon emitter is Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) which equates to around 5% of the world's CO2 emissions. In 2019, production plants in Britain produced over 9million tonnes of cement, equating to over 700million tonnes of CO2 (Barcelo, 2020). There is a clear need to radically and radically decarbonise the foundation industries. This project aims to develop and scale the world's first truly carbon-negative cement. It will incorporate the entire supply-chain and use industrial by-products from the steel and chemical industries to create a product which can be demonstrated at industrial scale.

Concrete is the second most used substance in the world after water, largely due to its low cost, abundance, and reliability in a wide variety of environments. While concrete has been a building block of society dating back to the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, current production and utilization methods pose significant energy and emissions challenges. This research proposes a resource and energy efficiency opportunity in the cement industry, which is the main carbon emitter within concrete, by utilising industrial by-products from the steel industry to create a new cement and establish a circular economy between these two foundation industries. The project has long-term viability by using the industry's existing supply chains and manufacturing techniques. This opens new markets to the cement industry in the form of sustainable building materials. Material Evolution's technology helps the cement industry move from being one of the largest contributors of embodied carbon, towards being the solution that actually eliminates carbon from the concrete manufacturing process. By using our patented technology, we transform the cement's chemistry to make concrete that is superior in terms of economics, strength, and sustainability. This will allow manufacturers to grow their business whilst shrinking their carbon footprint and rapidly decarbonise two foundation industries using a circular approach.

Celsa (Manufacturing) UK is the largest manufacturer of steel reinforcement in the UK as well as one of the largest manufacturers of other steel long products. There are 3 distinct processing areas at the site: the Melt Shop, where scrap steel is sorted, processed and melted into billets through the use of an electric arc furnace (EAF) -- a 33kV system that sends current through electrodes to melt 100% UK scrap metal with electricity; the Section Mill where the billets are processed into merchant bar and light sections such as those seen in roof construction; and the Rod & Bar Mill where the billets are rolled into reinforcing products and wire rod with one use being rebar mesh in concrete foundations. From these facilities in Cardiff, CELSA produces and delivers around 1.2 million tonnes of finished product each year, mainly supplying the UK and Irish Markets, and is 100% recyclable at the end of its life. This project looks to install a large piece of equipment, a static VAR compensator (SVC), to the high voltage EAF and reduce the reactive power of the system. This in turn will reduce the time it takes to melt steel within the EAF and thereby increasing the production output for the same energy as before an SVC is installed; it is anticipated to also improve the whole Melt Shop natural gas and low voltage electricity efficiency as well. As the scrap melting times and output of the Melt Shop bottlenecks the downstream processing mills, this increased production will also enable the speed up of the Section Mill and Rod & Bar Mill's processes and thereby reduce their energy consumption per tonne of steel output both for natural gas and electricity. Strategically this is also a highly beneficial project to the UK as a whole since currently 7-8Mt of UK scrap is exported, processed outside of the UK, and then reimported needlessly. Instead, this project will enable an increase of domestic scrap processing and production of steel with a high value to the UK economy and the natural reduction in carbon associated with the extra transport of scrap around the world.

The South Wales Industrial Cluster (SWIC) is a diverse mix of critical industry that have come together to collaboratively achieve common objectives for decarbonisation and clean growth delivering job security. The regions diverse industrial base presents both common and unique challenges. Sectors represented include steel/oil-refining/power/ paper/Nickel/insulation/chemicals/LNG import/Royal-Mint/general-manufacturing. SWIC aims to progress a cluster plan driven by a vision of "developing a world leading truly sustainable industry befitting the societal needs of 2030, 2040, 2050 and beyond" incorporating a circular economy revolution leading to a smarter, greener, and healthier society. SWIC's goal is NZC by 2040\. Current carbon emissions are 16MtCO2/y (5% of UK emissions), comprising 10MTCO2/y direct from industry and 6MTCO2/y from power generation. Achieving NZC will provide a significant contribution to the UK's goal of becoming net zero by 2050\. NZC must be realised in the broader context of 'People, Planet and Profit', achieving truly sustainable clean growth, within a globally competitive market, maintaining a growing, clean vibrant and diverse industrial sector region with potentially 40,000+ new jobs arising. The Phase-2 work will continue to define NZC options for all types of members including two of the largest industrial UK CO2 emitters plus many other large emitting sites from diverse sectors spread across the whole region. Phase2 will identify the best low carbon energy options that will work for multiple industry users and define distinctive 'mini-clusters' in the region. This will inform and assist planning for significant local and regional infrastructure. The 4 coastal 'mini-clusters' will connect the largest CO2 emitters, creating opportunities for carbon capture and use in addition connections to UK carbon storage facilities. Low carbon energy infrastructure including renewables and hydrogen will also be developed. (Q3-appendix). SWIC Plans centre around a 5 stepped approach to NZC, 5 spatial zone types will allow SWIC to take immediate steps toward NZC with a low chance of incurring "Regret Capital". As well as targeting a NZC cluster by 2040, this plan focuses on societal needs, circular economy and clean growth aspirations of the region, tackling the common and unique commercial & operational challenges facing SW industry. SWIC will work with other UK cluster regions to optimise decarbonisation outcomes. Specialist energy consultancy CR Plus are leading the project supported by a wide breadth 20+ key partners. Phase2 represents an opportunity to coalesce efforts, cement a direction and to further scope and define the action required to achieve the SWIC vision.

Each year in the UK, approximately there are 48 TWh/yr industrial waste heat sources which is equivalent to one sixth of overall industrial energy use. Of this amount of industrial waste heat, technically 11TWh/yr (2.2 MtCO2/yr) could be potentially recovered for useful purposes such as Combined Heat and Power (CHP) through specially designed energy conversion technologies. Globally one third of energy consumption is attributable to the industrial sector, with up to 50% ultimately wasted as heat. The market of power generation with industrial waste heat is thus enormous. The project will create an innovative CO2 transcritical power cycle (iT-CO2) for energy conversion systems with industrial waste heat. Instead of using an inapplicable CO2 liquid pump, a combined CO2 transcritical compressor and vapour-liquid ejector will be developed and installed in the system to create thermal-to-electrical efficiency of a target 30% (i.e. double state-of-the-art). The project outcomes will target heat-intensive industries such as steel, glass and other heat-intensive planets that require CHP solutions on sites or grid connections.

The proposed is a research and development project that aims to bring multiple stakeholders within the Foundation Industry South Wales Region together to analyze material and energy flows and identify potential opportunities for collaboration. Funding will support an industrial circular economy vision that will open new opportunities for improved energy and resource efficiency. Currently there are information silos among companies operating within the region, which prevents the realization of operational synergies that could be possible through the co-location of industrial facilities. ERM will act as an intermediary organisation to facilitate information transfer and research partners will contribute innovative ideas, which will be used to develop an action plan for cooperation between facilities. Funding will support the first phase of the project, which will involve relationship building, co-mapping material and energy flows, exploring the application of existing literature, and developing an action plan of future commercial opportunities. **"Value for money"** is to Foundation Industry partners involved, the South Wales economy and the National/Global economy (contributing to the development of circular economies more broadly). Wales has the lowest productivity of any region of the UK. WRAP suggests cost savings of up to £2.0bn a year could be achieved by transitioning to a circular economy. A circular economy model could move South Wales towards less dependency on raw materials and achieving global-sustainable-development-goals, specifically related to reduction of raw materials and associated impacts on biodiversity/ emissions, contributing towards climate change. There are clearly many unidentified market opportunities, which the region has yet to explore, which this project will help identify. This includes: 1. Precious metals recovery 2. Plastics recycling 3. Food/oils/agricultural/bio-wastes recycling and energy recovery 4. Water abstraction reduction, reuse/recycling amongst sectors/local-communities 5. Waste heat networks/heat recovery 6. Local energy networks/community projects 7. Meeting the need for energy storage and peak demands 8. Shared facilities - to benefit both industries and communities. 9. Shared services (accounting/legal/etc) 10. New supply chains Wales is second best in the world at Recycling rates, this project will help to build off that attribute to support the Foundation Industries in the region. With this funding, industry would be able to provide a forum for companies to come together to explore these opportunities - getting the right people around the table to explore the potential projects. This initiative also perfectly aligns to the Welsh and UK Government circular economy objectives and sustainability, to be 'zero waste' by 2050\.

The South Wales Industrial Cluster (SWIC) is a cluster of diverse industrial companies and sites across South Wales who have come together to collaboratively tackle common challenges of decarbonisation and clean growth. SWIC comprises of a diverse set of industries with both common and unique challenges. Sectors represented include steel, oil refining, paper, nickel refining, insulation materials, chemicals, LNG importing, Royal Mint and general manufacturing. The SWIC project will develop a roadmap for Phase 1 to deliver its vision of "developing a world leading truly sustainable industry befitting the societal needs of 2030, 2040, 2050 and beyond". This will incorporate a circular economy thus lead to a smarter, greener and healthier society. Current SWIC carbon emission levels are at 9MTCO2/y direct from industry, plus another 10MTCO2/y from power generation. SWICs target is to work with the power sector and achieve stepped reductions over the next two decades ultimately achieving Net Zero Carbon (NZC) by 2040. The Phase-1 work will establish NZC options for SWIC members; including two of the largest industrial UK CO2 emitters, several large sites and several medium sized sites. This will allow the several mini-local clusters to form, before growing and combining with each other, ultimately merging to connect to the large coastal CO2 emitters, at which point large scale CCU/CCS options exist creating value from residual regional carbon. This embryonic strategy centres around a stepped approach to NZC that progresses each step along a project journey to inform/refine the overall vision, whilst driving forward those steps where People-Planet-Profit combine to provide the trigger point to implement part or the whole of the next step. NZC progression supports not just the NZC target but will meet the societal needs and targets of the region and support the common and unique commercial and operational challenges and targets facing South Wales industry. The roadmap will also deliver a route for South Wales as a region to ultimately work and evolve in synergy with decarbonisation action in other regions in the UK. NZC as a target must be realised in the much broader context of 'People, Planet and Profit', achieving truly sustainable clean growth, within a globally competitive market, maintaining a growing, clean vibrant and diverse Industrial sector in the region. SWIC was formed using a holistic and integrated strategy. CR Plus are leading the project on behalf of SWIC, with Phase-1 representing an opportunity to coalesce efforts, cement a direction and to further scope the action plan required to achieve the SWIC vision.