Transforming the Foundation Industries: a Network+ Towards Value by Innovation

Lead Research Organisation: University of Sheffield
Department Name: Materials Science and Engineering

Abstract

The UK Foundation Industries (Glass, Metals, Cement, Ceramics, Bulk Chemicals and Paper), are worth £52B to the UK economy, produce 28 million tonnes of materials per year and account for 10% of the UK total CO2 emissions. These industries face major challenges in meeting the UK Government's legal commitment for 2050 to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by 100% relative to 1990, as they are characterised by highly intensive use of both resources and energy.

While all sectors are implementing steps to increase recycling and reuse of materials, they are at varying stages of creating road maps to zero carbon. These roadmaps depend on the switching of the national grid to low carbon energy supply based on green electricity and sustainable sources of hydrogen and biofuels along with carbon capture and storage solutions. Achievement of net zero carbon will also require innovations in product and process design and the adoption of circular economy and industrial symbiosis approaches via new business models, enabled as necessary by changes in national and global policies. Additionally, the Governments £4.7B National Productivity Investment Fund recognises the need for raising UK productivity across all industrial sectors to match best international standards. High levels of productivity coupled with low carbon strategies will contribute to creating a transformation of the foundation industry landscape, encouraging strategic retention of the industries in the UK, resilience against global supply chain shocks such as Covid-19 and providing quality jobs and a clean environment.

The strategic importance of these industries to UK productivity and environmental targets has been acknowledged by the provision of £66M from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund to support a Transforming Foundation Industries cluster. Recognising that the individual sectors will face many common problems and opportunities, the TFI cluster will serve to encourage and facilitate a cross sectoral approach to the major challenges faced. As part of this funding an Academic Network Plus will be formed, to ensure the establishment of a vibrant community of academics and industry that can organise and collaborate to build disciplinary and interdisciplinary solutions to the major challenges. The Network Plus will serve as a basis to ensure that the ongoing £66M TFI programme is rolled out, underpinned by a portfolio of the best available UK interdisciplinary science, and informed by cross sectoral industry participation.

Our network, initially drawn from eight UK universities, and over 30 industrial organisations will support the UK foundation industries by engaging with academia, industry, policy makers and non-governmental organisations to identify and address challenges and opportunities to co-develop and adopt transformative technologies, business models and working practices. Our expertise covers all six foundation industries, with relevant knowledge of materials, engineering, bulk chemicals, manufacturing, physical sciences, informatics, economics, circular economy and the arts & humanities. Through our programme of mini-projects, workshops, knowledge transfer, outreach and dissemination, the Network will test concepts and guide the development of innovative outcomes to help transform UK foundation industries. The Network will be inclusive across disciplines, embracing best practice in Knowledge Exchange from the Arts and Humanities, and inclusive of the whole UK academic and industrial communities, enabling access for all to the activity programme and project fund opportunities.

Organisations

Publications

10 25 50
publication icon
Aghadavoudi Jolfaei M (2023) Non-destructive evaluation of magnetic anisotropy associated with crystallographic texture of interstitial free steels in Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials

publication icon
Ahmad A (2024) A comprehensive material and experimental investigation of a packed bed latent heat storage system based on waste foundry sand in Energy

publication icon
Anagnostopoulos A (2024) From waste to value: Utilising waste foundry sand in thermal energy storage as a matrix material in composites in Solar Energy

publication icon
Bernal-Lopez, Susan (2023) Unlocking Resource Efficiency Phase 1 Cement and Concrete Report DESNZ Research Paper Series Number 2023/039

publication icon
Dutta U (2023) Application of Zone Method based Physics-Informed Neural Networks in Reheating Furnaces

publication icon
Echeverria-Rios D (2024) Predicting product quality in continuous manufacturing processes using a scalable robust Gaussian Process approach in Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence

publication icon
Fang Z (2023) A multi-sensing scheme based on nonlinear coupled micromachined resonators in Nonlinear Dynamics

publication icon
Fang Z (2023) Triple sensing scheme based on nonlinear coupled micromachined resonators in Nonlinear Dynamics

publication icon
Hurst G (2023) Anaerobic digestion of recycled paper crumb and effects of digestate on concrete performance in Renewable Energy

publication icon
Janani R (2023) From acrylates to silicones: A review of common optical fibre coatings used for normal to harsh environments in Progress in Organic Coatings

 
Title TFIN+ Brochure 
Description Summaries of 28 of 34 projects (calls 1-4) is complete. Version 1 of the brochure is ready for dissemination by Q4 2023. The final set of small projects, due for completion in autumn 2023, will then be added to create a brochure with a full set of projects. 
Type Of Art Creative Writing 
Year Produced 2023 
Impact Printed copies of the brochure are made available at events to ensure wider dissemination of project outputs, and to disseminate information about the Foundation Industries to people who are not familiar with them 
URL https://tfinetworkplus.org/tfin-brochure/
 
Title Videos presenting the outputs of some TFIN+ small projects 
Description TFIN+ commissioned a professional filmmaker to produce up to 13 short videos to disseminate small project outputs and wider TFIN+ activities. This was done in coordination with the TFI challenge team to ensure correct messaging and branding. The videos were released gradually starting 2nd Oct 2023, as a preamble to encourage people to attend our Christmas conference. 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2023 
Impact Each video on Youtube has been viewed 200+ times. These videos have disseminated the results of small projects to a wider audience via an easily accesible means 
URL https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1S_IpOkyn3xKZu_V6Nw7gQRncIh1VKNk&si=tnArnVMsX7zcbw_D
 
Description The TFIN+ was established to enable networking between academia and industry, with the aim of finding novel solutions to common problems faced by the Foundation Industries, examples including energy costs, environmental legislation, ageing workforce and supply chain disruptions. As such, the TFIN+ conducted a wide range of varied activities to help meet these aims. Below is a summary of key outputs and impact. 1. The TFIN+ has >720 members including 67% academia, and 33% industry or other types of organisations. Members are invited to take part in network activities and are sent a monthly newsletter highlighting key events and other opportunities. Some members have contacted the TFIN+ seeking advice, for example to find partners for collaborative projects. 2. The TFIN+ was granted two separate uplifts, in recognition of our ability to provide targeted and flexible support where required. The TFIN+ received £200k in additional funds from the TFI Challenge specifically for a small project call aimed a ECRs, in order to encourage and develop a pipeline of talent, which is crucial for the FIs. We were also granted £70k additional funds for EDI project. Further information about this project is provided in (3) below 3. The TFI Challenge recognised the need for the Foundation Industries to recruit qualified staff to help their transition to a sustainable future. To better understand these issues, the TFI Challenge provided funding to Prof. Rachel Van Duyvenbode, University of Sheffield and Prof. Amanda Crawley Jackson, University of Arts London to work with senior staff from a cement, ceramic and glass company. The Culture Coaching project modelled an approach to EDI training that enabled each Foundation Industry business to benefit from a uniquely bespoke development package that responded to their specific EDI needs and ambitions. It combined film-making, service design workshops and coaching of senior staff to help management identify and prioritise actions to improve. The results were very well received by the participating companies, and were presented as part of a panel discussion at our Christmas conference. Follow-on discussions are taking place to decide if the unique approach can be offer to other companies as a commercial offering 4. The TFIN+ organised over 23 workshops and events to bring the community together. The events were virtual, hybrid or in-person depending on when they took place. Events focussed on specific topics, such as energy use in FIs, or were more general in nature, such as the annual conference presenting results of TFIN+ funded small projects. Our December 2023 Christmas conference for example attracted over 130 delegates and bought people from the foundation industry community together to discuss latest innovations and developments. It included poster sessions, presentations on small projects and a conference dinner. It also included a prize distribution session for Best ECR TFIN+ small project sponsored by QinetiQ to Dr Xinyuan Ke, University Of Bath and Best TFIN+ project sponsored by IOM3 to Dr Peter Green, University Of Liverpool. Results of the EDI project were presented at this conference, which also features prominent guest speakers such as Lord Rupert Redesdale, Prof. Julian Allwood (Cambridge), Dr. Alastair Sanderson (Unilever) and Dr. Lorraine Ferris (Henry Royce). 5. One of the key task of the TFIN+ was to solicit innovative ideas with potential to transform the FIs. As such we ran five project calls, and disbursed £1.4m for 34 research projects across UK academia (from over 100 applications). These projects had industry partners to help disseminate and embed project results. Small project PIs have since leveraged >£3.5M of funding, either from industry, funding bodies, or in combination, to further small project results. Examples are expanded on in the quarterly reports submitted to EPSRC, but examples include: 5.1 Dr. Peter Green (Call 1). One new position was created at NSG to implement Dr. Green's AI process as part of their production system - ~£50k p.a. 5.2 Dr. Cristina Valles (Call 2) secured a follow-on grant "Sustainable Replacements for Coal Tar Pitch Binders used in the Foundation Industries", Funder: Industrial Collaboration Programme (ICP) (EPSRC via Royce Institute at the University of Manchester), £116,000 Industrial partner: Morgan Advanced Materials 5.3 Dr Silvia Tedesco (Call 2) secured an industry (from construction sector) match-funded PhD Scholarship (2022-2025) to continue the work, total value £69,286.00 5.4 Dr Xinyuan Ke (Call 2) secured £500k IDRIC Wave 2 funding for "Up-scaling on-site CO2 utilisation for decarbonisation of dispersed cement sector: a novel route to reliable net-zero concretes" with research in the Humber and South Wales Project partners: Lafarge Cauldon Limited/ Aggregate Industries Ltd, CEMEX UK 5.5 Dr. Yukun Hu (Call 3) received £161k from the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio Industrial Fuel Switching Phase 1 project: Green Hydrogen in Steel Manufacture and a £40k from Swerim for an industrially-funded project: AI for industry energy-transport-environment nexus net zero planning. 5.6 Haopeng Wang (Call 4) secured £50k for Enabling Construction Material Circularity in the Transport Infrastructure Sector. Innovation Launchpad Network+ with Connected Places Catapult. (EPSRC). Grant No. RIR13221124-1. 6. Publications: Small project PIs, as well as members of the management committee, have to date published 30 articles, whether in peer reviewed scientific journals, or other journals. This demonstrates the TFIN+ wider memberships' commitment to disseminate the results of the activity as widely as possible 7. Policy impact. The TFIN+ management committee has contributed to a number of reviews and consultations, providing expertise and evidence to influence policy related to the FIs. The full list of these consultations has been expanded upon in our quarterly reports, but some examples include 7.1 Prof. Bernal Lopez contributed to the recently published Parliamentary POSTBriefing - Reducing the whole life carbon impact of buildings (https://post.parliament.uk/research-briefings/post-pb-0044/) highlighting the need for cement materials innovations and existing alternatives to achieve net-zero. 7.2 Prof. Pleydell-Pearce submitted evidence to the UK government environmental audit committee's call for evidence on Green Steel in collaboration with the SUSTAIN Future Steel Manufacturing Research Hub (Technological Innovations and Climate Change: Green Steel - Written evidence - Committees - UK Parliament). 7.3 Professor Susan Bernal Lopez also contributed to the report Net-Zero in a Binder https://industry-tracker.org/research-analysis/net-zero-in-a-binder/ created by Industry Tracker, highlighting technical barriers for widespread uptake of low carbon materials. 7.4 Prof Cameron Pleydell-Pearce has worked with the Energy Transitions Commission on the development of a sustainable investment model for decarbonised steel production. Stakeholders involved included material users, investment banks, trade bodies, steel companies and technology providers. A model was created which has been supplied to the steel companies and investors to enable a higher success rate in final investment decisions. The report contains the government requirements in terms of either CAPEX support or subsidies to support OPEX and BEIS have been provided with the recommendations in this regard. https://missionpossiblepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Making-Net-Zero-Steel-possible.pdf 8. The TFIN+ published 10 professionally produced videos on YouTube in order to disseminate small projects findings as widely as possible. The videos have been viewed thousands of times in total and the nature of film makes the results of our work more widely accessible https://www.youtube.com/@tfinetworkplus6082/playlists 9. The TFIN+ has published a brochure (electronic and in print) of 28 completed projects. The second edition will be published by Spring 2024 to include the final set of completed projects. https://tfinetworkplus.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/TFiN-brochure-calls-1-4-FINAL-ONLINE-compressed.pdf
First Year Of Impact 2021
Sector Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology
Impact Types Societal

Economic

Policy & public services
 
Description MAKING NET-ZERO STEEL POSSIBLE An industry-backed, 1.5°C-aligned transition strategy
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
URL https://missionpossiblepartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Making-Net-Zero-Steel-possible.pdf
 
Description Net Zero: In a Binder
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
URL https://industry-tracker.org/research-analysis/net-zero-in-a-binder
 
Description POSTbrief Reducing the whole life carbon impact of buildings
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
URL https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/POST-PB-0044/POST-PB-0044.pdf
 
Description Technological Innovations and Climate Change: Green Steel - Written evidence - Committees - UK Parliament
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
URL https://committees.parliament.uk/work/6512/technological-innovations-and-climate-change-green-steel/
 
Description UK GHG Inventory Improvement: Carbonation of Concrete Emissions Sink Modelling
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
URL https://naei.beis.gov.uk/reports/reports?report_id=1114
 
Description Unlocking Resource Efficiency Phase 1 Cement and Concrete Report DESNZ Research Paper Series Number 2023/039
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
URL https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6564cae8888c06000dfa7dc2/unlocking-resource-efficienc...
 
Description Unlocking Resource Efficiency Phase 1 Steel Report DESNZ Research Paper Series Number 2023/039
Geographic Reach Local/Municipal/Regional 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
URL https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6564e4811524e60011a10183/unlocking-resource-efficienc...
 
Description KTP with Johnson Tiles
Amount £244,046 (GBP)
Funding ID 10030098 
Organisation Innovate UK 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 07/2022 
End 12/2024
 
Description Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Sika Limited (13081)
Amount £135,384 (GBP)
Funding ID 13081 
Organisation University of Leeds 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2022 
End 08/2025
 
Description Top up from the Transforming Foundation Industries Challenge
Amount £57,000 (GBP)
Organisation University of Sheffield 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 03/2023 
End 10/2023
 
Description Top up from the Transforming Foundation Industries Challenge
Amount £200,000 (GBP)
Organisation University of Sheffield 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 08/2022 
End 03/2023
 
Title Data supporting: 'Nanoindentation Response of 3D Printed PEGDA Hydrogels in a Hydrated Environment' 
Description Raw and processed data sets from nanoidentation response of 3D printed hydrogels. 1. Raw data of nanoindentation response. 2. Representative load-displacement curves for each type of hydrogel. 3. Representative data for creep for different types of hydrogels. 4. Representative data for NMR spectras of different types of hydrogels. 5. Representative data for glass transition of different types of hydrogels. 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2023 
Provided To Others? Yes  
URL https://cord.cranfield.ac.uk/articles/dataset/Nanoindentation_Response_of_3D_Printed_PEGDA_Hydrogels...
 
Title Dataset for "Cement and concrete decarbonisation roadmaps - a meta-analysis within the context of the United Kingdom" 
Description This Supplementary Information file provides full details of the methods used for the analysis presented in the article Marsh A.T.M. et al. "Cement and concrete decarbonisation roadmaps - a meta-analysis within the context of the United Kingdom". The sections describe the methods used for: S1. Assigning material scope to decarbonisation strategies S2. Determining material scope of the roadmaps S3. Determining existence of trends between strategies and actor type S4. Determining Technology and Market Readiness Level (TMRL) range for each strategy S5. Determining carbon reduction potential for each strategy 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2023 
Provided To Others? Yes  
URL https://archive.researchdata.leeds.ac.uk/1202/
 
Title Thermal response of multi-layer UV crosslinked PEGDA hydrogels 
Description All data sets are raw data from thermoresponse behaviour of hydrogels. 1. Swelling test for multi-150 um hydrogels with 1.8 mg/ml of photoabsorber.2. Swelling test for mono-5 mm hydrogels with 0 mg/ml of photoabsorber.3. Swelling test for multi-20 um hydrogels with 9 mg/ml of photoabsorber.4. Swelling test for mono-3 mm and mono-1.5 mm hydrogels with 0 mg/ml of photoabsorber.5. Cyclic test for multi-150 um hydrogels.6. Dried weight and solid residue weight of all hydrogels samples7. EWC, NWF, NVF-summary for all hydrogel samples8. DSC-TG-Thermogram-All sample types 
Type Of Material Database/Collection of data 
Year Produced 2022 
Provided To Others? Yes  
URL https://cord.cranfield.ac.uk/articles/dataset/Thermal_response_of_multi-layer_UV_crosslinked_PEGDA_h...
 
Description Brunel University London- Investigation of a Flat Heat Pipe for high temperature waste heat recovery from metal slabs 
Organisation Brunel University London
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Prof. Hussam Jouhara from Brunel University London was awarded £52, 647 for the project: Investigation of a Flat Heat Pipe for high temperature waste heat recovery from metal slabs'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application, which has industrial support from Econotherm Ltd.
Collaborator Contribution Prof. Hussam Jouhara from Brunel University London is the Principal Investigator on this small grant, which took place at the Brunel University London. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. Econotherm Ltd. manufactured the Flat Heat Pipe which is being investigated in this research and contributed to the design of the unit.
Impact The disciplines involved in the project include: mechanical engineering and engineering design. Energy efficiency is among the most important keys to unlock a green and more sustainable economy and a substantial amount of energy can be saved via the reuse of the waste heat. Exploitation of waste heat streams has already been investigated mainly relying on forced or natural convection as a heat transfer method. However, waste heat is also available as a radiative source. Radiative heat sources pose real challenges due to the complexity of modelling, its intensity and the status of current technology. Indeed, no technology can currently effectively recover radiative waste heat sources. Brunel has developed a novel radiative Flat Heat Pipe (FHP) heat recovery system to capture high temperature waste heat such as form slags, and slabs. The FHP relies on two phase transfer to move passively heat from the hot to the condenser section. The heat is then transferred safely to the heat sink such as air, water and water-glycol. The FHP system was designed according to a thermal electrical analogy, was constructed with the support of Econotherm Limited and prepared for testing. Testing was carried out in an industrial environment and for a heat source of 450 °C, the FHP was able to recover up to 800 W/m2 with an average evaporator surface temperature of 45 °C, highlighting its potential for even higher temperatures. The results of this industrial test, along with validation of the FHP model, allowed Brunel to assess further potential utilisation. It was concluded that the FHP technology could be easily implemented in the steel industry, for example, in the manufacture of wire which is extruded and cooled down by forced convection and radiation on long conveyors. If applied to the entirety of the conveyor, the expected output from the FHP system is predicted to be 12.5kW/m2. The aim is to further develop the technology to full demonstration scale, initially in the metals sector which presents strong potential for FHPs due to the high temperature and available heat sinks but also in cements. The built environment relies upon the metal and cement sectors for much of its materials and heat recovery in these energy intensive industries is of vital importance if we are to continue to manufacture in the UK. This is true irrespective of the introduction of low carbon or carbon neutral energy production in the future. Other outputs include: 1. "Experimental and theoretical Investigation of a Flat Heat Pipe for high temperature radiative waste heat recovery from aluminium slabs" Hussam Jouhara, Bertrand Delpech, 8th international conference on materials science and smart materials MSSM 2022, 11th July 2022 2. House of lords Invited Speaker 24 June 2022, "Heat Pipe technology for waste heat recovery in the steel industry"
Start Year 2021
 
Description Brunel University London- Investigation of a Flat Heat Pipe for high temperature waste heat recovery from metal slabs 
Organisation Econotherm Ltd
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Prof. Hussam Jouhara from Brunel University London was awarded £52, 647 for the project: Investigation of a Flat Heat Pipe for high temperature waste heat recovery from metal slabs'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application, which has industrial support from Econotherm Ltd.
Collaborator Contribution Prof. Hussam Jouhara from Brunel University London is the Principal Investigator on this small grant, which took place at the Brunel University London. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. Econotherm Ltd. manufactured the Flat Heat Pipe which is being investigated in this research and contributed to the design of the unit.
Impact The disciplines involved in the project include: mechanical engineering and engineering design. Energy efficiency is among the most important keys to unlock a green and more sustainable economy and a substantial amount of energy can be saved via the reuse of the waste heat. Exploitation of waste heat streams has already been investigated mainly relying on forced or natural convection as a heat transfer method. However, waste heat is also available as a radiative source. Radiative heat sources pose real challenges due to the complexity of modelling, its intensity and the status of current technology. Indeed, no technology can currently effectively recover radiative waste heat sources. Brunel has developed a novel radiative Flat Heat Pipe (FHP) heat recovery system to capture high temperature waste heat such as form slags, and slabs. The FHP relies on two phase transfer to move passively heat from the hot to the condenser section. The heat is then transferred safely to the heat sink such as air, water and water-glycol. The FHP system was designed according to a thermal electrical analogy, was constructed with the support of Econotherm Limited and prepared for testing. Testing was carried out in an industrial environment and for a heat source of 450 °C, the FHP was able to recover up to 800 W/m2 with an average evaporator surface temperature of 45 °C, highlighting its potential for even higher temperatures. The results of this industrial test, along with validation of the FHP model, allowed Brunel to assess further potential utilisation. It was concluded that the FHP technology could be easily implemented in the steel industry, for example, in the manufacture of wire which is extruded and cooled down by forced convection and radiation on long conveyors. If applied to the entirety of the conveyor, the expected output from the FHP system is predicted to be 12.5kW/m2. The aim is to further develop the technology to full demonstration scale, initially in the metals sector which presents strong potential for FHPs due to the high temperature and available heat sinks but also in cements. The built environment relies upon the metal and cement sectors for much of its materials and heat recovery in these energy intensive industries is of vital importance if we are to continue to manufacture in the UK. This is true irrespective of the introduction of low carbon or carbon neutral energy production in the future. Other outputs include: 1. "Experimental and theoretical Investigation of a Flat Heat Pipe for high temperature radiative waste heat recovery from aluminium slabs" Hussam Jouhara, Bertrand Delpech, 8th international conference on materials science and smart materials MSSM 2022, 11th July 2022 2. House of lords Invited Speaker 24 June 2022, "Heat Pipe technology for waste heat recovery in the steel industry"
Start Year 2021
 
Description Brunel University- Ensuring a sustainable future for recycling in the paper value chain 
Organisation Brunel University London
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Hassan Ahmad is a post-doctoral researcher from Brunel University. He was awarded £24,713 for the project 'Ensuring a sustainable future for recycling in the paper value chain'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Hassan Ahmad is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. Industrial participants: Aquapak, Benders, DS Smith, CPI, Costa Coffee, and James Cropper. The following are the industrial contributions to this project: - The project process meeting with input from industry experts; the supply of raw or partially processed materials; and the examination of technical results. They will offer assistance throughout the project, reviewing both the preliminary and ongoing findings. - Received a total amount of £5,250 contribution which go towards the cost of the project - breakdown: £5,000 from Aquapak; £250 from Benders. - Other contributions include leveraging CPI's network capabilities to disseminate the project findings for future potential investment/impact in a larger-scale R&D project.
Impact Disciplines involved: chemistry, techno-economic assessment The research delved into the environmental challenges tied to barrier coatings used in UK and EU hot-beverage cups, exploring different materials and the resulted recycling difficulties and impact on the recycling facilities. Furthermore, the limitations of current testing methods were scrutinised, calling for more comprehensive and updated guidelines. The study underscores the urgent need for collaborative efforts for sustainable alternatives and practices. It was found that the current standard developed for repulpability tests (Cepi harmonised European laboratory test method) fails to comprehensively address emerging barrier coatings that are increasingly utilised commercially. The standards address the repulpability of paper products and do not consider the quality of pulp that is recovered and whether it is suitable for recycling.
Start Year 2022
 
Description London South Bank University- Digital tools for agile waste segregation 
Organisation Centre for Process Innovation (CPI)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Dinh Nguyen is a post-doctoral researcher from London South Bank University. She was awarded £23,935 for the project 'Digital tools for agile waste segregation'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Dinh Nguyen is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to her. The project partner CPI is a Catapult. They come on board to extend the use of R2R system (conveyor belt) and thereby to extend the use of such systems by instrumenting them with the required sensors
Impact Waste generation in the TFI sector is a common problem, however, an even larger problem is identifying, screening and segregating the waste. At times, the waste can involve complex chemical compositions or can also have handling difficulties (high temperature, sharp edges, unknown material). The problem in itself has larger implications spanning from the nuclear sector to the Municipal solid waste sector. For example, according to the World Bank's What a Waste 2.0 report, the world generates 2.01 billion tonnes of Solid Waste (MSW) annually, with at least 33% of that not managed in an environmentally safe manner. This project explored a method for non-destructively determining various hazardous wastes at an industrial level by integrating a fast optical sensing with an innovative roll-to-roll system and advanced data analysis methods. Within the scope of this project, we demonstrated an example of the possibility to use advanced technology to successfully separate, in a continuous manner, multiple types of plastic wastes. The feasibility can be extended further in the same manner to other material wastes generated by the Foundation Industries, including metals, ceramics, glass, chemicals, paper and cement. This helps the recycling industry and can protect environment, from pollution or contamination. We anticipate that the greatest impact of our findings are the agility that the THz method offers in the "response time" compared to the other sensing methods. We can use the recycled plastic to replace those materials in many cases. Integrating more recycled plastic content into products and packaging can be an effective way to reduce carbon emissions. Finally, this study adds value by creating possible employment opportunities in waste management sector. This research opens up an opportunity to apply in real plastic recycling industry and to further study other types of materials using a similar method, especially those that come from Foundation Industries.
Start Year 2022
 
Description London South Bank University- Feasibility study on valorisation of paper mill sludge (PMS) to manufacture Eco-bricks 
Organisation London South Bank University
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Saurav Goel from London South Bank University awarded £55,999 for the project 'Feasibility study on valorisation of paper mill sludge (PMS) to manufacture Eco-bricks'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application, which has industrial support from StanRocc Ltd. and Hindustan Nagoan Paper Mill (NPM)
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Saurav Goel from London South Bank University (LBSU) is the Principal Investigator on this small grant, which took place at the LBSU. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. StanRocc Ltd. is supplying materials samples for the project and NPM is also providing materials and samples.
Impact The disciplines involved in the project include: material science, construction and environmental management. The processing of pulp and paper products yields a significant amount of waste in the form of sludge, collectively referred to as pulp and paper mill sludge (PMS) which is one of the most significant waste produced by the foundation industry that needs tackling. The study carried out at LSBU was carried out to understand if redirecting this waste as an active ingredient in construction sector to produce fired clay bricks was feasible. In this feasibility study, we have carried out material characterisation of PMS and corresponding use in value-added eco-bricks, wherein brick properties such as water absorption, apparent porosity and compressive strength of the bricks were determined. Additionally, based on the percentage PMS added, corresponding embodied energy and CO2 released were calculated. Results obtained revealed that presence of silica, calcium carbonate and other important minerals displayed the potential of PMS in fabricating bricks. As the PMS content increased, apparent porosity increased which in turn decreased the compressive strength of the bricks. Also, with the increase in PMS content, CO2 released was reduced which highlights the effectiveness in using waste PMS materials. On the whole, the feasibility study was found to effective in indicating the circular economical use of PMS through redirecting the waste into the construction sector.
Start Year 2021
 
Description Loughborough University: Micromachined based Multi-Sensing Solution toward Digitalisation of Foundation Industries 
Organisation Loughborough University
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Amal Hajjaj is a junio lecturer from Loughborogh University. She was awarded £55,802 for the project 'Micromachined based Multi-Sensing Solution toward Digitalisation of Foundation Industries'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application, by introducing Dr. Hajaj to the industry partners at our workshop in 2021
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Amal Hajjaj is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to her. Weir Group provided information on the operation system and feedback on sensor implementation, and hosted the project's Postdoctoral Researcher for two weeks The Materials Processing Institute-UK (MPIUK) participated in regular meetings with the Academic Team; provided information data on the steel industry environment and feedback on the design feasibility; and hosted the project's Postdoctoral Researcher for two weeks to test the developed sensor on site.
Impact Industry 4.0 and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) in the Foundation industries are driven by the expanding development of smart sensors offering new approaches to collect and post-process data to improve many areas of factory operation and lead to the digitalisation of the production process. Substantial technological investment is required to realise digitalisation in the current and coming era, leading to the expansion of the global industrial sensors market, which is expected to reach USD 53.2 Billion by 2030 with a CAGR of 9.06%. The fundamental revolution in the UK Foundation industries lies in the broad integration of sensor technology. The above aims mainly towards cost-saving through production process optimisation, reduction of equipment downtime through predictive maintenance by enabling machines to be self-monitored, and improving their reliability and maintenance cost. Such aims will likely be achieved by developing multifunctional smart sensors (i.e., sensors performing predefined actions according to collected data) with high precision, reliability, and fast response time. Particularly, it is vital to collect real-time data for workplace monitoring or predictive equipment maintenance, such as motion, temperature, gas concentration and humidity. The project has a developed MEMS sensor concept that is accurate, fast, tunable to various scenarios and proven at the component level in the Lab. Additional funds have been sourced to calibrate and integrate the sensor into the testbeds offered by the industry partners (WARC and MPIUK) with real operating conditions. Follow-on activities: Dr Hajjaj submitted recently (beginning of January 2023) her EPSRC new investigator award which is based on an expansion of the MEMS sensing idea of this project to multi-sensing detection for other industrial sectors. Dr Hajjaj and Prof Theodossiades submitted (as academic partners) a Smart Grant application on January 2023 to Innovate UK on a similar topic for a different industry sector. We are planning to have a small workshop at Loughborough University to show the sensing capability proved at our labs for our industrial collaborators (WEIR and MPIUK). Dr Hajjaj was award recently of small NERC discipline hopping grant (as CoI) to develop a MEMS sensor for smart environmental monitoring
Start Year 2022
 
Description Loughborough University: Micromachined based Multi-Sensing Solution toward Digitalisation of Foundation Industries 
Organisation Materials Processing Institute
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Amal Hajjaj is a junio lecturer from Loughborogh University. She was awarded £55,802 for the project 'Micromachined based Multi-Sensing Solution toward Digitalisation of Foundation Industries'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application, by introducing Dr. Hajaj to the industry partners at our workshop in 2021
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Amal Hajjaj is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to her. Weir Group provided information on the operation system and feedback on sensor implementation, and hosted the project's Postdoctoral Researcher for two weeks The Materials Processing Institute-UK (MPIUK) participated in regular meetings with the Academic Team; provided information data on the steel industry environment and feedback on the design feasibility; and hosted the project's Postdoctoral Researcher for two weeks to test the developed sensor on site.
Impact Industry 4.0 and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) in the Foundation industries are driven by the expanding development of smart sensors offering new approaches to collect and post-process data to improve many areas of factory operation and lead to the digitalisation of the production process. Substantial technological investment is required to realise digitalisation in the current and coming era, leading to the expansion of the global industrial sensors market, which is expected to reach USD 53.2 Billion by 2030 with a CAGR of 9.06%. The fundamental revolution in the UK Foundation industries lies in the broad integration of sensor technology. The above aims mainly towards cost-saving through production process optimisation, reduction of equipment downtime through predictive maintenance by enabling machines to be self-monitored, and improving their reliability and maintenance cost. Such aims will likely be achieved by developing multifunctional smart sensors (i.e., sensors performing predefined actions according to collected data) with high precision, reliability, and fast response time. Particularly, it is vital to collect real-time data for workplace monitoring or predictive equipment maintenance, such as motion, temperature, gas concentration and humidity. The project has a developed MEMS sensor concept that is accurate, fast, tunable to various scenarios and proven at the component level in the Lab. Additional funds have been sourced to calibrate and integrate the sensor into the testbeds offered by the industry partners (WARC and MPIUK) with real operating conditions. Follow-on activities: Dr Hajjaj submitted recently (beginning of January 2023) her EPSRC new investigator award which is based on an expansion of the MEMS sensing idea of this project to multi-sensing detection for other industrial sectors. Dr Hajjaj and Prof Theodossiades submitted (as academic partners) a Smart Grant application on January 2023 to Innovate UK on a similar topic for a different industry sector. We are planning to have a small workshop at Loughborough University to show the sensing capability proved at our labs for our industrial collaborators (WEIR and MPIUK). Dr Hajjaj was award recently of small NERC discipline hopping grant (as CoI) to develop a MEMS sensor for smart environmental monitoring
Start Year 2022
 
Description Loughborough University: Micromachined based Multi-Sensing Solution toward Digitalisation of Foundation Industries 
Organisation Weir Group plc
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Amal Hajjaj is a junio lecturer from Loughborogh University. She was awarded £55,802 for the project 'Micromachined based Multi-Sensing Solution toward Digitalisation of Foundation Industries'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application, by introducing Dr. Hajaj to the industry partners at our workshop in 2021
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Amal Hajjaj is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to her. Weir Group provided information on the operation system and feedback on sensor implementation, and hosted the project's Postdoctoral Researcher for two weeks The Materials Processing Institute-UK (MPIUK) participated in regular meetings with the Academic Team; provided information data on the steel industry environment and feedback on the design feasibility; and hosted the project's Postdoctoral Researcher for two weeks to test the developed sensor on site.
Impact Industry 4.0 and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) in the Foundation industries are driven by the expanding development of smart sensors offering new approaches to collect and post-process data to improve many areas of factory operation and lead to the digitalisation of the production process. Substantial technological investment is required to realise digitalisation in the current and coming era, leading to the expansion of the global industrial sensors market, which is expected to reach USD 53.2 Billion by 2030 with a CAGR of 9.06%. The fundamental revolution in the UK Foundation industries lies in the broad integration of sensor technology. The above aims mainly towards cost-saving through production process optimisation, reduction of equipment downtime through predictive maintenance by enabling machines to be self-monitored, and improving their reliability and maintenance cost. Such aims will likely be achieved by developing multifunctional smart sensors (i.e., sensors performing predefined actions according to collected data) with high precision, reliability, and fast response time. Particularly, it is vital to collect real-time data for workplace monitoring or predictive equipment maintenance, such as motion, temperature, gas concentration and humidity. The project has a developed MEMS sensor concept that is accurate, fast, tunable to various scenarios and proven at the component level in the Lab. Additional funds have been sourced to calibrate and integrate the sensor into the testbeds offered by the industry partners (WARC and MPIUK) with real operating conditions. Follow-on activities: Dr Hajjaj submitted recently (beginning of January 2023) her EPSRC new investigator award which is based on an expansion of the MEMS sensing idea of this project to multi-sensing detection for other industrial sectors. Dr Hajjaj and Prof Theodossiades submitted (as academic partners) a Smart Grant application on January 2023 to Innovate UK on a similar topic for a different industry sector. We are planning to have a small workshop at Loughborough University to show the sensing capability proved at our labs for our industrial collaborators (WEIR and MPIUK). Dr Hajjaj was award recently of small NERC discipline hopping grant (as CoI) to develop a MEMS sensor for smart environmental monitoring
Start Year 2022
 
Description Manchester Metropolitan University- Paper & Construction industry symbiosis via AD for resource efficiency and a low carbon future 
Organisation Manchester Metropolitan University
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Sylvia Tedesco is a junior lecturer from Manchester Metropolitan University. She was awarded £55,995 for the project 'Paper & Construction industry symbiosis via AD for resource efficiency and a low carbon future'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application, which has industrial support from SAICA Paper.
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Sylvia Tedesco from the Manchester Metropolitan University is the Principal Investigator on this small grant, which took place at the Manchester Metropolitan University. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to her. SAICA Paper will provide paper sludge samples and participate in steering committee meetings. They will also help in mapping materials flow in a typical paper mill.
Impact The disciplines involved in the project include: Chemical and Industrial Engineering, Microbiology, Environmental Science, Mechanical and Civil Engineering The UK is home to ~ 50 Pulp and Paper Mill companies with over 80 associated businesses. The pulp industry is one of the UK's most energy intensive industries and requires novel decarbonisation processes to maximise energy and mass efficiency. As part of the paper recycling process, over 10% of input materials becomes paper sludge, a non-hazardous biowaste. In this project, we proposed a more resource efficient circular approach, that consisted of two stages. The first stage redirected paper sludge away from incineration towards biogas using anaerobic digestion, as a form of low-carbon energy for cogeneration (CHP). The research results indicate that paper sludge had a methane potential of 163 ml CH4 per gram of volatile solids and a 48% biodegradability. This showed that paper sludge has remarkable anaerobic digestion potential that could be potentially applied across the paper industry as a standalone process. The second stage of the project utilised the remaining slurry fraction after anaerobic digestion, called digestate, as a water replacement in concrete manufacture. This study found that the concrete formed using up to 50% substitution resulted in increased concrete compressive strengths up to 46 and 35 MPa at 90 days, respectively with and without the use of plasticiser. The combination of suspended solids and dissolved ions greatly improved the structural rigidity of the concrete and could potentially be used not only as a waste disposal method, but also a beneficial concrete additive. Overall, the combined anaerobic digestion and concrete application better valorised the paper sludge waste fraction as demonstration of the circular economy vision. Further outputs: The PI has successfully engaged CARDON Construction Ltd. to match-fund a PhD Scholarship (2022-2025) to continue the work (total value £69,286.00, Internal Project ID 717037, titled 'Exploring the decarbonisation potential of the concrete sector via use of digestate wastewaters for the hydration of cement in an industrial symbiosis scenario') on concrete decarbonisation using digestate wastewaters (also other than paper sludge) and waste materials (e.g. ashes from incineration as aggregate/binders for partial substitution with Portland cement). A further element of novelty has been introduced in the PhD research project, which entails static & dynamic deformation studies of concrete beams, first in a simulation environment (via ANSYS Mechanical - Structural package), then de vivo at the construction company's premises. The company is interested in developing and commercialising sustainable prefabricated concrete panels as well as increasing their visibility in this area (REA's Business Innovation of the Year Award, or similar, is something the company is keen to pursue, if results allow it in the near future). Finally, the project was used to impact younger and mature students by using Man Mat's RISE Programme (competitive scheme for Summer Internship of 6 weeks in research laboratories or industry), which recruited two students - 1 BAME male and 1 female - to train them for developing and pilot testing concrete cubes with incinerated paper sludge (fly/bottom ash) which have been presented earlier, this work will be continued for the academic year 2022-23 hopefully through the same scheme as well as the PhD student. G. Hurst, A. Ahmed, S. Taylor and S. Tedesco, 'AN ASSESSMENT OF PAPER SLUDGE VALORISATION TO ENERGY AND A WATER SUBSTITUTE IN CONCRETE VIA ANAEROBIC DIGESTION', Proceedings of SEEP2022, 12-15th September 2022, Brunel University London-UK. https://seepconference.com/speakers/prof-silvia-tedesco/
Start Year 2022
 
Description Northumbria University- Improving surface interactions of waste plastics as grain substitutes within concrete 
Organisation Northumbria University
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. James Railton is a post-doctoral researcher from the Northumbria University. He was awarded £22,657 for the project 'Improving surface interactions of waste plastics as grain substitutes within concrete'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application
Collaborator Contribution Dr. James Railton is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. Industrial participation will be provided by Amcrete. The partner will provide expertise specifically in concrete formulation, systematic testing and control measures. Furthermore, the partner will provide materials for concrete production (cement and aggregates).
Impact Disciplines involved: bulk chemicals, polymeric materials and metal-oxide interaction The cement industry is one of the biggest CO2 emitters on the planet and concurrently, we are facing a global crisis in plastic waste and how to repurpose, reuse or recycle it rather than disposing of it in landfill/incineration. The scope of this project was to allow concrete to be 'dematerialised' by using less raw material, reduce costs through the use of 'zero/negative-value' polymer waste streams in concrete whilst also improving mechanical properties of the final polymer-concrete composite. Through collaboration across academic sectors, we aimed to tackle both described issues through the use and optimisation of polymeric waste streams (specifically polypropylene, PP) as organic binders for high performance concrete composites. Previously, the inclusion of waste polymers in concrete has been found to degrade the mechanical properties of concrete compared to standard concrete. We therefore tackled these limitations by applying a 'bottom-up' approach to aggregate-inorganic oxide surface interactions and material performance. Specifically, this research studied the chemistry of interactions between inorganic oxides and cement with functional groups introduced into polymeric materials to allow correlation and insight on these interactions and optimise the final polymer-concrete composite. We found via Fourier-transform infra-red analysis (FTIR) we were able to observe how our proposed functional groups effected bond formation during the pozzolanic reaction of cement curing. We were then able to functionalise model polymers with these groups and then formulate concrete with the functionalised polymer. Concrete made in this way was found to have lower strength when compared to control samples made without polymer, however, the strength was still acceptable for building materials. Concrete formulated with pozzolanic active polymer was also found to be more workable and require less superplasticizer, typically the most expensive ingredient of concrete.
Start Year 2022
 
Description Sheffield Hallam University- High Temperature Optical Fibre Coatings for Next Generation Gas Emission Monitoring 
Organisation Glass Technology Services
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Ronak Janani is a post-doctoral researcher from the Sheffield Hallam University. She was awarded £28,986 for the project 'High Temperature Optical Fibre Coatings for Next Generation Gas Emission Monitoring '. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Ronak Janani is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to her. IS-Instruments is a micro-SME specialising in producing new instrumentation, including world-class spectroscopic techniques for challenging situations in the industrial sectors. IS-Instruments has developed a gas Raman instrument incorporating the ORC hollow core micro-structured fibres as the sensing medium and thus, has interest in the development of fibres for use in high temperature (>85°C) environments. IS-Instruments will provide their expertise and input, with up to £2,000 of in-kind support. Glass Technology Services (GTS) is an SME whose business is the provision of technical support and research and development to the glass supply chain. GTS will provide up to £4,000 of in-kind support in attending steering meetings, reviewing and providing data and access to facilities where appropriate. Breedon Group is a large multinational company that leads construction materials group including cement in Great Britain and Ireland. Breedon has great interest in taking part and supporting projects exploring different avenues enabling reduction in emissions and energy consumption and in this regard, they are prepared to provide up to £1,200 of in-kind support to the HiT OFCs project. Wienerberger is the world's largest producer of heavy clay bricks and clay blocks. This multinational company will provide their insights from a ceramics manufacturing point of view in the form of (up to £4,000) in-kind support in this project
Impact Disciplines: chemistry, materials science, spectroscopy Real-time gas emission monitoring with high sensitivity (ppm) is a prerequisite to the step-changes necessary in UK Foundation Industries (FIs) for reductions in environmental emissions and energy consumption to achieve net zero. Current emissions monitoring techniques impose limitations to efficiency, detection limits and detectable gaseous species. We have been developing a new gas-Raman instrument capable of near-to-real-time, reliable detection of a wide range of gaseous species of key interest to FIs (H2O, CO, CO2, NOx, SO2, HCl, HF, NH3, VOCs). This device can be implemented across all FIs and other sectors requiring real-time emission monitoring. By enabling real-time monitoring, the collected data can be fed back into process control, to continuously optimise process parameters, optimising fuel use and minimising CO2 emissions. Efficient environmental sensors could save ˜0.26 million TJ/year of energy across all energy-consuming sectors which is equivalent to ˜15 Mt of CO2 globally. This project aimed to increase the TRL of the developing gas-Raman technology by examining and ranking a number of optical fibre coatings based on their high temperature (= 200°C) performance, ease of handling / application, chemical stability and flow behaviour. A thorough literature review was conducted at the beginning of the project to provide a summary of the common optical fibre coatings used for adverse conditions across different industries. This review has been published in the Progress in Organic Coatings journal, Volume 180, July 2023. Based on this review, four UV-curable acrylate coatings were selected as potential candidates. The flow behaviour and the thermal performance of all four coatings were characterised and compared against the benchmark coating to select the most suitable for the present application of interest. Our findings have enabled our collaborators at the Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton, to pilot manufacturing hollow-core fibres for high temperature applications. This is a great step towards developing a heat-resistant hollow core optical fibre as a key component for the gas-Raman instrument and there remains large scope to continue this collaboration beyond the frameworks of HiT OFCs.
Start Year 2022
 
Description Sheffield Hallam University- High Temperature Optical Fibre Coatings for Next Generation Gas Emission Monitoring 
Organisation IS Instruments
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Ronak Janani is a post-doctoral researcher from the Sheffield Hallam University. She was awarded £28,986 for the project 'High Temperature Optical Fibre Coatings for Next Generation Gas Emission Monitoring '. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Ronak Janani is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to her. IS-Instruments is a micro-SME specialising in producing new instrumentation, including world-class spectroscopic techniques for challenging situations in the industrial sectors. IS-Instruments has developed a gas Raman instrument incorporating the ORC hollow core micro-structured fibres as the sensing medium and thus, has interest in the development of fibres for use in high temperature (>85°C) environments. IS-Instruments will provide their expertise and input, with up to £2,000 of in-kind support. Glass Technology Services (GTS) is an SME whose business is the provision of technical support and research and development to the glass supply chain. GTS will provide up to £4,000 of in-kind support in attending steering meetings, reviewing and providing data and access to facilities where appropriate. Breedon Group is a large multinational company that leads construction materials group including cement in Great Britain and Ireland. Breedon has great interest in taking part and supporting projects exploring different avenues enabling reduction in emissions and energy consumption and in this regard, they are prepared to provide up to £1,200 of in-kind support to the HiT OFCs project. Wienerberger is the world's largest producer of heavy clay bricks and clay blocks. This multinational company will provide their insights from a ceramics manufacturing point of view in the form of (up to £4,000) in-kind support in this project
Impact Disciplines: chemistry, materials science, spectroscopy Real-time gas emission monitoring with high sensitivity (ppm) is a prerequisite to the step-changes necessary in UK Foundation Industries (FIs) for reductions in environmental emissions and energy consumption to achieve net zero. Current emissions monitoring techniques impose limitations to efficiency, detection limits and detectable gaseous species. We have been developing a new gas-Raman instrument capable of near-to-real-time, reliable detection of a wide range of gaseous species of key interest to FIs (H2O, CO, CO2, NOx, SO2, HCl, HF, NH3, VOCs). This device can be implemented across all FIs and other sectors requiring real-time emission monitoring. By enabling real-time monitoring, the collected data can be fed back into process control, to continuously optimise process parameters, optimising fuel use and minimising CO2 emissions. Efficient environmental sensors could save ˜0.26 million TJ/year of energy across all energy-consuming sectors which is equivalent to ˜15 Mt of CO2 globally. This project aimed to increase the TRL of the developing gas-Raman technology by examining and ranking a number of optical fibre coatings based on their high temperature (= 200°C) performance, ease of handling / application, chemical stability and flow behaviour. A thorough literature review was conducted at the beginning of the project to provide a summary of the common optical fibre coatings used for adverse conditions across different industries. This review has been published in the Progress in Organic Coatings journal, Volume 180, July 2023. Based on this review, four UV-curable acrylate coatings were selected as potential candidates. The flow behaviour and the thermal performance of all four coatings were characterised and compared against the benchmark coating to select the most suitable for the present application of interest. Our findings have enabled our collaborators at the Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton, to pilot manufacturing hollow-core fibres for high temperature applications. This is a great step towards developing a heat-resistant hollow core optical fibre as a key component for the gas-Raman instrument and there remains large scope to continue this collaboration beyond the frameworks of HiT OFCs.
Start Year 2022
 
Description Sheffield Hallam University- High Temperature Optical Fibre Coatings for Next Generation Gas Emission Monitoring 
Organisation Wienerberger
Country Austria 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Ronak Janani is a post-doctoral researcher from the Sheffield Hallam University. She was awarded £28,986 for the project 'High Temperature Optical Fibre Coatings for Next Generation Gas Emission Monitoring '. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Ronak Janani is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to her. IS-Instruments is a micro-SME specialising in producing new instrumentation, including world-class spectroscopic techniques for challenging situations in the industrial sectors. IS-Instruments has developed a gas Raman instrument incorporating the ORC hollow core micro-structured fibres as the sensing medium and thus, has interest in the development of fibres for use in high temperature (>85°C) environments. IS-Instruments will provide their expertise and input, with up to £2,000 of in-kind support. Glass Technology Services (GTS) is an SME whose business is the provision of technical support and research and development to the glass supply chain. GTS will provide up to £4,000 of in-kind support in attending steering meetings, reviewing and providing data and access to facilities where appropriate. Breedon Group is a large multinational company that leads construction materials group including cement in Great Britain and Ireland. Breedon has great interest in taking part and supporting projects exploring different avenues enabling reduction in emissions and energy consumption and in this regard, they are prepared to provide up to £1,200 of in-kind support to the HiT OFCs project. Wienerberger is the world's largest producer of heavy clay bricks and clay blocks. This multinational company will provide their insights from a ceramics manufacturing point of view in the form of (up to £4,000) in-kind support in this project
Impact Disciplines: chemistry, materials science, spectroscopy Real-time gas emission monitoring with high sensitivity (ppm) is a prerequisite to the step-changes necessary in UK Foundation Industries (FIs) for reductions in environmental emissions and energy consumption to achieve net zero. Current emissions monitoring techniques impose limitations to efficiency, detection limits and detectable gaseous species. We have been developing a new gas-Raman instrument capable of near-to-real-time, reliable detection of a wide range of gaseous species of key interest to FIs (H2O, CO, CO2, NOx, SO2, HCl, HF, NH3, VOCs). This device can be implemented across all FIs and other sectors requiring real-time emission monitoring. By enabling real-time monitoring, the collected data can be fed back into process control, to continuously optimise process parameters, optimising fuel use and minimising CO2 emissions. Efficient environmental sensors could save ˜0.26 million TJ/year of energy across all energy-consuming sectors which is equivalent to ˜15 Mt of CO2 globally. This project aimed to increase the TRL of the developing gas-Raman technology by examining and ranking a number of optical fibre coatings based on their high temperature (= 200°C) performance, ease of handling / application, chemical stability and flow behaviour. A thorough literature review was conducted at the beginning of the project to provide a summary of the common optical fibre coatings used for adverse conditions across different industries. This review has been published in the Progress in Organic Coatings journal, Volume 180, July 2023. Based on this review, four UV-curable acrylate coatings were selected as potential candidates. The flow behaviour and the thermal performance of all four coatings were characterised and compared against the benchmark coating to select the most suitable for the present application of interest. Our findings have enabled our collaborators at the Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton, to pilot manufacturing hollow-core fibres for high temperature applications. This is a great step towards developing a heat-resistant hollow core optical fibre as a key component for the gas-Raman instrument and there remains large scope to continue this collaboration beyond the frameworks of HiT OFCs.
Start Year 2022
 
Description Swansea University- Sustainable Investment Assurance Model: SIAM 
Organisation British Standards Institute (BSI Group)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Stephen Spooner is an early career researcher from Swansea University. He was awarded £51,608 for the project 'Sustainable Investment Assurance Model: SIAM'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application, which has industrial support from the CR Plus Ltd and the British Standards Institute.
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Stephen Spooner from Swansea University is the Principal Investigator on this small grant, which took place at the Swansea University. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. CR Plus Ltd are providing staff to support the project and will act as a facilitator during the exploration of different work packages. The British Standards Institute is providing staff time and helping with widening the network of stakeholders.
Impact The disciplines involved in the project include: Life-cycle Assessment, Socio-Economic Assessment, Community Education, Policy Engagement, Holist Sustainability The project extends the multifaceted sustainability modelling from the steel to other foundation industries. Engaged parties include Unilever and P&G (Bulk Chemicals), Aggregate Industries (Cement), Glass technologies (Glass), Alfed, Innoval and the Non-Ferrous Alliance (Metals). Consultation with each sector was conducted to review the existing SIAM framework and adapt measurements concerning circularity, direct/indirect energy consumption maps, economic drivers versus policy constraints and proportional representation of workers, working conditions and wealth disparity. The primary outcomes are summarised: i) Decarbonisation/sustainability improvements from environmental perspectives are significantly skewed to the use of additional energy requirements for either heat, transport, or reduction of material. The UK has a relatively well-developed renewables portfolio on the grid, however over short time scales an increase in energy demand can only be met through the use of non-renewable energy production methods. Consequently, until further development of a renewable energy grid with overcapacity is achieved there is minimal gain to be made from altering production methodologies. ii) Volatility in supply chains is a major factor which can affect every aspect of sustainability. Without control and consistent supply of materials, validation and representation of sustainability credentials is not only meaningless but potentially unethical to provide to consumers as a purchasing motive. Supply chain volatility is a big risk factor under current global influences such as COVID pandemic recovery, BREXIT, war in developed nations and the forecast recession. These factors create an economic reluctance to both invest from an initial financial basis, but also from a point to minimise further disruption from current manufacturing methodologies. De-risking supply is another overarching theme which must be tackled to shift to sustainable practices. iii) Data quality continues to be an issue. SIAM developed databases for each case study, mined from the literature which required significant time and expertise. Known data was inputted into databases when available but over 75% was obtained from open-source unverified literature. Such data collection is time consuming and expensive but with investment in capex across multiple industries a necessity to meet sustainability targets, it is essential and if integrated from the outset, significant improvements could be made and realised with minimal cost and impact. Current discussions are ongoing with several companies on how SIAM can be used to quantify sustainability improvements of future capex investments. A limited version of the framework has been supplied to members of government organisation for internal use on investment decision making. The tool is being openly used within several large companies to validate sustainability investment plans both in the UK and international operations. The benefit of SIAM to the built environment is to facilitate informed decision making amongst stakeholders such as the Foundation Industries, national and local government and construction companies in the drive to reduce the carbon footprint in construction materials. Other outputs: The PI recently obtained a new position as Associate Professor at Coventry University. The ECR funding he received through the TFIN+ was a strong contributor to this as it allowed him to develop new areas of expertise/research, prove funding capability and demonstrate impact.
Start Year 2022
 
Description Swansea University- Sustainable Investment Assurance Model: SIAM 
Organisation Swansea University
Department College of Engineering
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Stephen Spooner is an early career researcher from Swansea University. He was awarded £51,608 for the project 'Sustainable Investment Assurance Model: SIAM'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application, which has industrial support from the CR Plus Ltd and the British Standards Institute.
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Stephen Spooner from Swansea University is the Principal Investigator on this small grant, which took place at the Swansea University. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. CR Plus Ltd are providing staff to support the project and will act as a facilitator during the exploration of different work packages. The British Standards Institute is providing staff time and helping with widening the network of stakeholders.
Impact The disciplines involved in the project include: Life-cycle Assessment, Socio-Economic Assessment, Community Education, Policy Engagement, Holist Sustainability The project extends the multifaceted sustainability modelling from the steel to other foundation industries. Engaged parties include Unilever and P&G (Bulk Chemicals), Aggregate Industries (Cement), Glass technologies (Glass), Alfed, Innoval and the Non-Ferrous Alliance (Metals). Consultation with each sector was conducted to review the existing SIAM framework and adapt measurements concerning circularity, direct/indirect energy consumption maps, economic drivers versus policy constraints and proportional representation of workers, working conditions and wealth disparity. The primary outcomes are summarised: i) Decarbonisation/sustainability improvements from environmental perspectives are significantly skewed to the use of additional energy requirements for either heat, transport, or reduction of material. The UK has a relatively well-developed renewables portfolio on the grid, however over short time scales an increase in energy demand can only be met through the use of non-renewable energy production methods. Consequently, until further development of a renewable energy grid with overcapacity is achieved there is minimal gain to be made from altering production methodologies. ii) Volatility in supply chains is a major factor which can affect every aspect of sustainability. Without control and consistent supply of materials, validation and representation of sustainability credentials is not only meaningless but potentially unethical to provide to consumers as a purchasing motive. Supply chain volatility is a big risk factor under current global influences such as COVID pandemic recovery, BREXIT, war in developed nations and the forecast recession. These factors create an economic reluctance to both invest from an initial financial basis, but also from a point to minimise further disruption from current manufacturing methodologies. De-risking supply is another overarching theme which must be tackled to shift to sustainable practices. iii) Data quality continues to be an issue. SIAM developed databases for each case study, mined from the literature which required significant time and expertise. Known data was inputted into databases when available but over 75% was obtained from open-source unverified literature. Such data collection is time consuming and expensive but with investment in capex across multiple industries a necessity to meet sustainability targets, it is essential and if integrated from the outset, significant improvements could be made and realised with minimal cost and impact. Current discussions are ongoing with several companies on how SIAM can be used to quantify sustainability improvements of future capex investments. A limited version of the framework has been supplied to members of government organisation for internal use on investment decision making. The tool is being openly used within several large companies to validate sustainability investment plans both in the UK and international operations. The benefit of SIAM to the built environment is to facilitate informed decision making amongst stakeholders such as the Foundation Industries, national and local government and construction companies in the drive to reduce the carbon footprint in construction materials. Other outputs: The PI recently obtained a new position as Associate Professor at Coventry University. The ECR funding he received through the TFIN+ was a strong contributor to this as it allowed him to develop new areas of expertise/research, prove funding capability and demonstrate impact.
Start Year 2022
 
Description University College London: Physics-informed digital twins for industrial heating processes (twin4heat) 
Organisation Research Institutes of Sweden
Department Swerim
Country Sweden 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Yukun Hu from University College London was awarded £55,615 for the project 'Physics-informed digital twins for industrial heating processes'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application by introducing Dr. Hu to Vesuvius Plc at a workshop run by the TFIN+
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Yukun Hu is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. Vesuvius provided performace data on their gas fired continious kiln and technical support Swerim provided data and technical advice
Impact Disciplines involved: Thermal Engineering, Computer Science Twin4heat's ambition was to accelerate the UK's Net-Zero trajectory through next generation industrial heating processes using artificial intelligence to break through the predictive capability bottleneck of most surrogate models due to time consuming data acquisition in thermal analysis, design and optimisation. It aimed to tackle the challenge of automatic, fast, and frequent temperature prediction and setpoint estimation tasks (the most wide-spread tasks in the intelligent industrial heating process) by embedding physics knowledge of heating processes into Artificial Neural Networks. The project studied the problem of predicting temperatures within a digital twin model of an industrial heating system, such as the reheating furnaces, via modelling the underlying physical phenomenon of radiative heat transfer. The first contribution is to cast the prediction problem as a regression task to employ Machine Learning (ML) based methods. Then, physics-based regularization terms derived from the classical Hottel's zone method are proposed for equipping a neural network with better generalizability. Evaluating the proposed approach against a range of ML baselines using simulated data from a real-world furnace showcased the exceptional capabilities of neural networks to leverage the benefits of physical knowledge. Twin4Heat's ground-breaking methodology holds tremendous potential for transforming industrial heating processes, enabling substantial advancements in energy efficiency, emissions reduction, sustainability, and profitability within the foundation industries.
Start Year 2022
 
Description University College London: Physics-informed digital twins for industrial heating processes (twin4heat) 
Organisation University College London
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Yukun Hu from University College London was awarded £55,615 for the project 'Physics-informed digital twins for industrial heating processes'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application by introducing Dr. Hu to Vesuvius Plc at a workshop run by the TFIN+
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Yukun Hu is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. Vesuvius provided performace data on their gas fired continious kiln and technical support Swerim provided data and technical advice
Impact Disciplines involved: Thermal Engineering, Computer Science Twin4heat's ambition was to accelerate the UK's Net-Zero trajectory through next generation industrial heating processes using artificial intelligence to break through the predictive capability bottleneck of most surrogate models due to time consuming data acquisition in thermal analysis, design and optimisation. It aimed to tackle the challenge of automatic, fast, and frequent temperature prediction and setpoint estimation tasks (the most wide-spread tasks in the intelligent industrial heating process) by embedding physics knowledge of heating processes into Artificial Neural Networks. The project studied the problem of predicting temperatures within a digital twin model of an industrial heating system, such as the reheating furnaces, via modelling the underlying physical phenomenon of radiative heat transfer. The first contribution is to cast the prediction problem as a regression task to employ Machine Learning (ML) based methods. Then, physics-based regularization terms derived from the classical Hottel's zone method are proposed for equipping a neural network with better generalizability. Evaluating the proposed approach against a range of ML baselines using simulated data from a real-world furnace showcased the exceptional capabilities of neural networks to leverage the benefits of physical knowledge. Twin4Heat's ground-breaking methodology holds tremendous potential for transforming industrial heating processes, enabling substantial advancements in energy efficiency, emissions reduction, sustainability, and profitability within the foundation industries.
Start Year 2022
 
Description University College London: Physics-informed digital twins for industrial heating processes (twin4heat) 
Organisation Vesuvius UK Ltd
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Yukun Hu from University College London was awarded £55,615 for the project 'Physics-informed digital twins for industrial heating processes'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application by introducing Dr. Hu to Vesuvius Plc at a workshop run by the TFIN+
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Yukun Hu is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. Vesuvius provided performace data on their gas fired continious kiln and technical support Swerim provided data and technical advice
Impact Disciplines involved: Thermal Engineering, Computer Science Twin4heat's ambition was to accelerate the UK's Net-Zero trajectory through next generation industrial heating processes using artificial intelligence to break through the predictive capability bottleneck of most surrogate models due to time consuming data acquisition in thermal analysis, design and optimisation. It aimed to tackle the challenge of automatic, fast, and frequent temperature prediction and setpoint estimation tasks (the most wide-spread tasks in the intelligent industrial heating process) by embedding physics knowledge of heating processes into Artificial Neural Networks. The project studied the problem of predicting temperatures within a digital twin model of an industrial heating system, such as the reheating furnaces, via modelling the underlying physical phenomenon of radiative heat transfer. The first contribution is to cast the prediction problem as a regression task to employ Machine Learning (ML) based methods. Then, physics-based regularization terms derived from the classical Hottel's zone method are proposed for equipping a neural network with better generalizability. Evaluating the proposed approach against a range of ML baselines using simulated data from a real-world furnace showcased the exceptional capabilities of neural networks to leverage the benefits of physical knowledge. Twin4Heat's ground-breaking methodology holds tremendous potential for transforming industrial heating processes, enabling substantial advancements in energy efficiency, emissions reduction, sustainability, and profitability within the foundation industries.
Start Year 2022
 
Description University of Bath- Innovative green process to turn alkali solid wastes into carbon-negative feedstock for the cement 
Organisation Aggregate Industries
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Xinyuan Ke is a junior lecturer from the University of Bath. She was awarded £55,648 for the project 'Innovative green process to turn alkali solid wastes into carbon-negative feedstock for the cement. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application, which has industrial support from the Materials Processing Institute and Aggregate Industries UK Ltd.
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Xinyuan Ke from the University of Bath is the Principal Investigator on this small grant, which took place at the University of Bath. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to her. The Materials Processing Institute is supplying materials, technical details, advice and mentoring. Aggregate Industries UK Ltd / London Concrete will provide the research team cement kiln dust from their own cement producer and provide access to technical details of their production facilities at Cauldon and concrete production sites at London Concrete.
Impact The disciplines involved in the project include: material science & engineering, and civil engineering and environmental engineering. Over 2 billion tonnes of diverse alkali solid wastes (i.e., biomass ash, cement kiln dust, steel slag) are generated from Foundation Industries worldwide annually and are primarily disposed of through landfills and stockpiling. The volume of these is expected to double in the next few decades, which has brought significant challenges to the cement and metal industries for reaching the Net-Zero targets. This project developed an innovative green chemical process via mechanochemical activation to turn these alkali solid wastes into carbon-negative materials which can be used as an alternative feedstock for producing low-carbon sustainable cement. Our project discovered that mechanochemical activation can effectively improve the reactivity of polysilicates (i.e., akermanite), mineral phases that commonly present in alkali solid wastes (i.e., biomass ash, steel slag), for direct carbonation under conditions that resemble the flue gas conditions. The effectiveness of mechanochemical treatment is controlled by the milling time, the ball to sample mass charge ratio, and the water addition content applied to each feedstock materials. In particular, the water addition during the mechanochemical activation has a significant effect on the crystallisation process and the crystalline structure of the carbonate salts formed during the follow-on direct carbonation processes. These alkali solid wastes treated with mechanochemical activation process and used for direct mineral carbonation can be used as alternative supplementary cementitious materials (SCM) to partially replacing cement clinkers in the cement industry, with satisfactory engineering performances (setting time, strength performances) up to 40% cement replacement level. The research team led by Dr Xinyuan Ke at University of Bath is further looking into the feasibility of scaling up this novel process from lab-scale. With the fundamental understanding of the mechanochemical treatment processes developed in this study, the same technology is transferrable to other foundation industries, such as the paper and ceramic industry. Other outputs included: 1. the PI has disseminated the initial outcomes at the TFI Network Hub conferences in May 2022, reached and engaged with a wide range of industrial partners within the Foundation Industries (i.e., MPA, British Steel, Tarmac, etc.). 2. A presentation disseminating the initial results with biomass ash was given to the RILEM technical committee (TC-281CCC) on carbonation in 10th June 2022 to broaden the international reach of this project
Start Year 2022
 
Description University of Bath- Innovative green process to turn alkali solid wastes into carbon-negative feedstock for the cement 
Organisation Materials Processing Institute
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Xinyuan Ke is a junior lecturer from the University of Bath. She was awarded £55,648 for the project 'Innovative green process to turn alkali solid wastes into carbon-negative feedstock for the cement. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application, which has industrial support from the Materials Processing Institute and Aggregate Industries UK Ltd.
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Xinyuan Ke from the University of Bath is the Principal Investigator on this small grant, which took place at the University of Bath. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to her. The Materials Processing Institute is supplying materials, technical details, advice and mentoring. Aggregate Industries UK Ltd / London Concrete will provide the research team cement kiln dust from their own cement producer and provide access to technical details of their production facilities at Cauldon and concrete production sites at London Concrete.
Impact The disciplines involved in the project include: material science & engineering, and civil engineering and environmental engineering. Over 2 billion tonnes of diverse alkali solid wastes (i.e., biomass ash, cement kiln dust, steel slag) are generated from Foundation Industries worldwide annually and are primarily disposed of through landfills and stockpiling. The volume of these is expected to double in the next few decades, which has brought significant challenges to the cement and metal industries for reaching the Net-Zero targets. This project developed an innovative green chemical process via mechanochemical activation to turn these alkali solid wastes into carbon-negative materials which can be used as an alternative feedstock for producing low-carbon sustainable cement. Our project discovered that mechanochemical activation can effectively improve the reactivity of polysilicates (i.e., akermanite), mineral phases that commonly present in alkali solid wastes (i.e., biomass ash, steel slag), for direct carbonation under conditions that resemble the flue gas conditions. The effectiveness of mechanochemical treatment is controlled by the milling time, the ball to sample mass charge ratio, and the water addition content applied to each feedstock materials. In particular, the water addition during the mechanochemical activation has a significant effect on the crystallisation process and the crystalline structure of the carbonate salts formed during the follow-on direct carbonation processes. These alkali solid wastes treated with mechanochemical activation process and used for direct mineral carbonation can be used as alternative supplementary cementitious materials (SCM) to partially replacing cement clinkers in the cement industry, with satisfactory engineering performances (setting time, strength performances) up to 40% cement replacement level. The research team led by Dr Xinyuan Ke at University of Bath is further looking into the feasibility of scaling up this novel process from lab-scale. With the fundamental understanding of the mechanochemical treatment processes developed in this study, the same technology is transferrable to other foundation industries, such as the paper and ceramic industry. Other outputs included: 1. the PI has disseminated the initial outcomes at the TFI Network Hub conferences in May 2022, reached and engaged with a wide range of industrial partners within the Foundation Industries (i.e., MPA, British Steel, Tarmac, etc.). 2. A presentation disseminating the initial results with biomass ash was given to the RILEM technical committee (TC-281CCC) on carbonation in 10th June 2022 to broaden the international reach of this project
Start Year 2022
 
Description University of Bath- Innovative green process to turn alkali solid wastes into carbon-negative feedstock for the cement 
Organisation University of Bath
Department Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Xinyuan Ke is a junior lecturer from the University of Bath. She was awarded £55,648 for the project 'Innovative green process to turn alkali solid wastes into carbon-negative feedstock for the cement. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application, which has industrial support from the Materials Processing Institute and Aggregate Industries UK Ltd.
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Xinyuan Ke from the University of Bath is the Principal Investigator on this small grant, which took place at the University of Bath. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to her. The Materials Processing Institute is supplying materials, technical details, advice and mentoring. Aggregate Industries UK Ltd / London Concrete will provide the research team cement kiln dust from their own cement producer and provide access to technical details of their production facilities at Cauldon and concrete production sites at London Concrete.
Impact The disciplines involved in the project include: material science & engineering, and civil engineering and environmental engineering. Over 2 billion tonnes of diverse alkali solid wastes (i.e., biomass ash, cement kiln dust, steel slag) are generated from Foundation Industries worldwide annually and are primarily disposed of through landfills and stockpiling. The volume of these is expected to double in the next few decades, which has brought significant challenges to the cement and metal industries for reaching the Net-Zero targets. This project developed an innovative green chemical process via mechanochemical activation to turn these alkali solid wastes into carbon-negative materials which can be used as an alternative feedstock for producing low-carbon sustainable cement. Our project discovered that mechanochemical activation can effectively improve the reactivity of polysilicates (i.e., akermanite), mineral phases that commonly present in alkali solid wastes (i.e., biomass ash, steel slag), for direct carbonation under conditions that resemble the flue gas conditions. The effectiveness of mechanochemical treatment is controlled by the milling time, the ball to sample mass charge ratio, and the water addition content applied to each feedstock materials. In particular, the water addition during the mechanochemical activation has a significant effect on the crystallisation process and the crystalline structure of the carbonate salts formed during the follow-on direct carbonation processes. These alkali solid wastes treated with mechanochemical activation process and used for direct mineral carbonation can be used as alternative supplementary cementitious materials (SCM) to partially replacing cement clinkers in the cement industry, with satisfactory engineering performances (setting time, strength performances) up to 40% cement replacement level. The research team led by Dr Xinyuan Ke at University of Bath is further looking into the feasibility of scaling up this novel process from lab-scale. With the fundamental understanding of the mechanochemical treatment processes developed in this study, the same technology is transferrable to other foundation industries, such as the paper and ceramic industry. Other outputs included: 1. the PI has disseminated the initial outcomes at the TFI Network Hub conferences in May 2022, reached and engaged with a wide range of industrial partners within the Foundation Industries (i.e., MPA, British Steel, Tarmac, etc.). 2. A presentation disseminating the initial results with biomass ash was given to the RILEM technical committee (TC-281CCC) on carbonation in 10th June 2022 to broaden the international reach of this project
Start Year 2022
 
Description University of Birmingham- SANDTHERM: Deployment of a medium-high temperature waste heat recovery unit based on foundry sand 
Organisation University of Birmingham
Department School of Chemical Engineering
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr Argyrios Anagnostopoulos is a post-doctoral researcher from the University of Birmingham. He was awarded £43,910 for the project 'SANDTHERM: Deployment of a medium-high temperature waste heat recovery unit based on foundry sand'. Some of the ideas for this project emerged from a workshop that that TFIN+ facilitated with the Cast Metals Federation, which included foundries and academics. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application, which includes Boro Foundry, Kelvin Thermotech Ltd and Mantec Technical Ceramics Ltd.
Collaborator Contribution Dr Argyrios Anagnostopoulos from the University of Birmingham is the Principal Investigator on this small grant, which took place at the University of Birmingham. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. The Boro Foundry will provision labour and space to construct, deploy and monitor the waste heat recovery WHR- TES system Kelvin Thermotech Ltd will provide expertise in thermal energy storage materials manufacturing, and advice and guidance on thermal energy storage device design. Mantec Technical Ceramics Ltd. will provide consultation on the material level and on a production level to fabricate the sand based building blocks.
Impact The disciplines involved in the project include: chemical engineering, materials science and engineering and mechanical engineering The aim of this project was to demonstrate a tangible business case of industrial symbiosis (circular economy) in which the waste product of one industry (foundries) is valorised as a key component for novel Waste Heat Recovery (WHR) storage systems to increase the efficiency and decrease carbon footprint of others (e.g., forging). The specific objective is to contrive and deploy a WHR-TES (Thermal Energy Storage) system based on the waste foundry sand. The project demonstrated the technical and economical feasibility of using waste foundry sand (WFS) as a thermal energy storage (TES) material for medium-high temperature waste heat recovery applications. It deployed, operated and monitored a waste heat storage and reuse unit using TES materials containing WFS. This novel material was composed of 40% PCM, 20% WFS and 20% MgO. Two PCM's were selected to improve system efficiency by maximizing latent heat. These were NaNO3 and a 60-40 NaNO3-KNO3 mixture with melting points of 309? and 218? respectively. The materials had a density of 1.65 and 1.93 g/cm3, average specific heat. Average specific heat capacity is 1.23 J/gK and 1.22 J/gK and average thermal conductivity 1.63 W/mK and 1.48 W/mK for NaNO3 and SS CPCMs respectively. The device was charged using a high temperature fan with an average mass flowrate of 0.028 kg/s and an inlet temperature of 400 ? generated, which was the maximum capacity of the 10 kW heater. Total charging time was 10h followed by a total discharging time for 24h. System efficiency was found to be 76.1%. A robust, computationally inexpensive CFD model was able to reasonable reproduce the behaviour of the system. Based on system efficiency and using UK pricing the payback time was found to be 15 years. However, a best case scenario with global competitive pricing and an easily achievable efficiency of 90% resulted in a payback time of 5.6 years. Throughout SANDTHERM several UK companies, in particularly Midlands foundries, were approached and informed on the prospects of this business case. Reactions were overall highly positive. These results could potentially onset a companies to explore this option in an effort to improve their efficiency and reduce waste in a green manner.
Start Year 2022
 
Description University of Birmingham- THERMCAST- Valorisation of foundry sands as medium-high temperature waste heat recovery materials bricks 
Organisation University of Birmingham
Department School of Chemical Engineering
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr Argyrios Anagnostopoulos is a post-doctoral researcher from the University of Birmingham. He was awarded £35,622 for the project 'THERMCAST- Valorisation of foundry sands as medium-high temperature waste heat recovery materials bricks'. Some of the ideas for this project emerged from a workshop that that TFIN+ facilitated with the Cast Metals Federation, which included foundries and academics. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application, which has industrial support from Kelvin Thermotech Ltd.
Collaborator Contribution Dr Argyrios Anagnostopoulos from the University of Birmingham is the Principal Investigator on this small grant, which took place at the University of Birmingham. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. Kelvin Thermotech Ltd is providing advice and guidance on thermal energy storage device design as well as expertise in thermal energy storage materials manufacturing.
Impact The disciplines involved in the project include: material science, chemical engineering and mechanical engineering. The aim of this project was to develop a tangible business case of industrial symbiosis (circular economy) in which the waste product of one industry (foundries) is valorised as a key component for novel WHR systems with storage to increase efficiency and decrease the carbon footprint of others (e.g., forging). The specific objectives are to formulate and characterise composite heat storage materials using waste foundry sand and to conduct an in-depth thermoeconomic assessment of a WHR system based on the formulated materials for thermal energy storage (TES) applications. The project demonstrated the technical and economical feasibility of using foundry sand as a TES material for medium-high temperature waste heat recovery applications. It developed a novel thermal energy storage (TES) material formulation based on foundry sand for hybrid (latent and sensible) thermal energy storage at up to 400 ?. The optimal composition consisted of 60% NaNO3, 30% foundry sand and 10% additive (BCES X). The material demonstrated good chemical and physical stability after 50 cycles (25-400 ?). Its energy storage density was found to be 566 KJ/kg and its thermal conductivity 1.23 W/mK. In parallel, the temperature of an induction furnace exhaust used for steel melting was monitored. A TES system, based on the developed material, was then designed using the waste heat data and its efficiency was evaluated through CFD modelling and found to be 87% and 81% for charging and discharging respectively. An elementary thermoeconomic analysis was conducted on the proposed TES system. The minimum payback period was estimated to be 5.6 years at a 90% system efficiency.
Start Year 2021
 
Description University of Leeds- Can workforce diversity stimulate transformation towards a more sustainable future? 
Organisation Ferrovial
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Jennifer Tomlinson is from the University of Leeds. She was awarded £50,564 for the project 'Can workforce diversity stimulate transformation towards a more sustainable future?' My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application, by helping to introduce her to the project partner at the Enablers of Transformation Workshop for Foundation Industries, 12th October 2022
Collaborator Contribution Prof. Jennifer Tomlinsonis the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to her. The academic partner will work in collaboration with Ferrovial Construction UK and Ireland. The University of Leeds and Ferrovial Construction are both equally committed to this project in terms of time and resources and have collaborated on the objectives and research design. Ferrovial are able to provide access to a wide range of vital EDI and organisational data on gender and ethnic pay gaps, promotion, retention and exit of their workforce. The data analysis will be combined with new primary research (qualitative) to understand how diversity and inclusion can be achieved to stimulate sustainability.
Impact Disciplines involved in the project: Social Sciences, Business Studies, Management The foundation industries face stark challenges that are worsened by a persistent lack of workforce diversity. In 2020, women represented 16% and BAME workers only 7.1% of all workers (Office for National Statistics, 2020). Coinciding with a looming skills shortage due to an aging workforce, difficulties in recruiting and retaining gender and ethnic minorities have been compounded by the effects of COVID-19 and Brexit restricting access to markets previously relied upon to reconcile shortages in labour supply (CITB, 2018). The lack of diversity emphasizes the challenges faced by supply chain demands, productivity losses, technological advancements and achieving decarbonization through a loss of existing skills and meeting future demand (ERC, 2021; Farmer, 2016; TFI Network+, 2022). Thus, in pursuing workforce sustainability through diversity and inclusion, the foundation industries can achieve transformation by not only addressing skills shortages, but in accessing innovation through new management and organizational structures to pursue net-zero goals. The project aimed to identify and better understand the underlying causes of high rates of attrition for women and ethnic minorities, lack of diversity in the foundation industries and to stimulate sustainability and innovation through increased diversification and inclusion. We conducted an intensive case study on company in the concrete industry combining existing administrative data on pay, progression (2287 observations for over five years 2018-2022 inclusive) and retention via exit interview data (n120) and new empirical insights over a six-month period to understand the factors that contribute to exit and/or lack of progression, and to develop appropriate solutions. Through interview data collection with key stakeholders and women and minority ethnic workers (n35), we explored why women and ethnic minorities leave the firm in higher proportions than white men do; and how and to what extent promotion opportunities and pay impact decisions to leave or stay.
Start Year 2023
 
Description University of Leeds- Can workforce diversity stimulate transformation towards a more sustainable future? 
Organisation University of Leeds
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Jennifer Tomlinson is from the University of Leeds. She was awarded £50,564 for the project 'Can workforce diversity stimulate transformation towards a more sustainable future?' My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application, by helping to introduce her to the project partner at the Enablers of Transformation Workshop for Foundation Industries, 12th October 2022
Collaborator Contribution Prof. Jennifer Tomlinsonis the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to her. The academic partner will work in collaboration with Ferrovial Construction UK and Ireland. The University of Leeds and Ferrovial Construction are both equally committed to this project in terms of time and resources and have collaborated on the objectives and research design. Ferrovial are able to provide access to a wide range of vital EDI and organisational data on gender and ethnic pay gaps, promotion, retention and exit of their workforce. The data analysis will be combined with new primary research (qualitative) to understand how diversity and inclusion can be achieved to stimulate sustainability.
Impact Disciplines involved in the project: Social Sciences, Business Studies, Management The foundation industries face stark challenges that are worsened by a persistent lack of workforce diversity. In 2020, women represented 16% and BAME workers only 7.1% of all workers (Office for National Statistics, 2020). Coinciding with a looming skills shortage due to an aging workforce, difficulties in recruiting and retaining gender and ethnic minorities have been compounded by the effects of COVID-19 and Brexit restricting access to markets previously relied upon to reconcile shortages in labour supply (CITB, 2018). The lack of diversity emphasizes the challenges faced by supply chain demands, productivity losses, technological advancements and achieving decarbonization through a loss of existing skills and meeting future demand (ERC, 2021; Farmer, 2016; TFI Network+, 2022). Thus, in pursuing workforce sustainability through diversity and inclusion, the foundation industries can achieve transformation by not only addressing skills shortages, but in accessing innovation through new management and organizational structures to pursue net-zero goals. The project aimed to identify and better understand the underlying causes of high rates of attrition for women and ethnic minorities, lack of diversity in the foundation industries and to stimulate sustainability and innovation through increased diversification and inclusion. We conducted an intensive case study on company in the concrete industry combining existing administrative data on pay, progression (2287 observations for over five years 2018-2022 inclusive) and retention via exit interview data (n120) and new empirical insights over a six-month period to understand the factors that contribute to exit and/or lack of progression, and to develop appropriate solutions. Through interview data collection with key stakeholders and women and minority ethnic workers (n35), we explored why women and ethnic minorities leave the firm in higher proportions than white men do; and how and to what extent promotion opportunities and pay impact decisions to leave or stay.
Start Year 2023
 
Description University of Leeds- Co-designing a goal interdependency method for deciding corporate sustainability strategy 
Organisation Morgan Advanced Materials
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Rebecca Pieniazek is a Post-Doctoral Researcher from the University of Leeds. She was awarded £54,607 for the project 'Co-designing a goal interdependency method for deciding corporate sustainability strategy'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application.
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Rebecca Pieniazek is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to her. Morgan Advanced Material will allow 20-25 of their staff to take part in the survey
Impact Disciplines involved in the project: Social sciences; novel application of a concept from psychology ('the goal hierarchy perspective') to organisational level strategy, focused specifically on Corporate Environmental sustainability. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to Corporate Environmental Sustainability (CES) because organisations have different organisational goals (aims, values, projects, strategies, initiatives & activities) and different interdependencies across these goals. Nevertheless, there is currently no tool or process companies can follow to decide upon their unique and optimal CES particularly when transformational change is required. To address this lack of knowledge and practical need, we used a connectionist approach (akin to neural networks) and developed a multi-step process. Together with one larger (global) and one small (UK-based) organisation from the foundation industry we demonstrated the usefulness of an 'Organisational Goal Hierarchy' map in both prompting areas for new ideas and evaluating those ideas. This Organisational Goal Hierarchy tool can now be used by others to aid decision-making around contextualised improvements for CES.
Start Year 2023
 
Description University of Leeds- Co-designing a goal interdependency method for deciding corporate sustainability strategy 
Organisation University of Leeds
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Rebecca Pieniazek is a Post-Doctoral Researcher from the University of Leeds. She was awarded £54,607 for the project 'Co-designing a goal interdependency method for deciding corporate sustainability strategy'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application.
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Rebecca Pieniazek is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to her. Morgan Advanced Material will allow 20-25 of their staff to take part in the survey
Impact Disciplines involved in the project: Social sciences; novel application of a concept from psychology ('the goal hierarchy perspective') to organisational level strategy, focused specifically on Corporate Environmental sustainability. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to Corporate Environmental Sustainability (CES) because organisations have different organisational goals (aims, values, projects, strategies, initiatives & activities) and different interdependencies across these goals. Nevertheless, there is currently no tool or process companies can follow to decide upon their unique and optimal CES particularly when transformational change is required. To address this lack of knowledge and practical need, we used a connectionist approach (akin to neural networks) and developed a multi-step process. Together with one larger (global) and one small (UK-based) organisation from the foundation industry we demonstrated the usefulness of an 'Organisational Goal Hierarchy' map in both prompting areas for new ideas and evaluating those ideas. This Organisational Goal Hierarchy tool can now be used by others to aid decision-making around contextualised improvements for CES.
Start Year 2023
 
Description University of Leeds- Element-based mapping of waste and by-product material flows for industrial symbiosis 
Organisation Tarmac Ltd
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Alastair Marsh is a post-doctoral researcher from the University of Leeds. He was awarded £26,864 for the project 'Element-based mapping of waste and by-product material flows for industrial symbiosis'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application
Collaborator Contribution The industry partners involved represented the four Foundational Industry sectors targeted in this project: cement (Tarmac Cement), ceramics (Wienerberger UK), glass (Glass Futures), and metals (CELSA Steel UK). Industry partners will facilitate knowledge transfer to the PIs in three main ways: (1) Supported data gathering around the composition and quantity of by-products and waste from the targeted FI sectors. (2) Provided insight around production methods and existing approaches to resource management. (3) Provided feedback and input on the output of the project.
Impact Disciplines involved: life cycle analysis The Foundation Industries (FI) are keen to reduce the amount of raw materials they consume, and maximise the value of the by-products they generate. However, they lack integrated information about the volumes, chemical composition and end use of 'waste' which presents a barrier to industrial symbiosis. We have therefore developed a simplified model to map material inputs and outputs for the cement, ceramics, steel and glass sectors in the UK by focussing on the flows of key chemical elements relevant to each sector and combining compositional and mass flow data for each material stream. Using Sankey diagrams to visualise these elemental flows, we identified 8 untapped potential opportunities for industrial symbiosis between the ceramics, cement, steel and glass sectors such the use of blast furnace slag (from steel production) as a replacement for brick clay (for use in the ceramics sector) and cement kiln dust (from cement production) as a replacement for limestone (for use in the steel sector). This element flow mapping approach may be applied to other industrial sectors and also at an individual plant level.
Start Year 2022
 
Description University of Leeds- Element-based mapping of waste and by-product material flows for industrial symbiosis 
Organisation University of Leeds
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Alastair Marsh is a post-doctoral researcher from the University of Leeds. He was awarded £26,864 for the project 'Element-based mapping of waste and by-product material flows for industrial symbiosis'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application
Collaborator Contribution The industry partners involved represented the four Foundational Industry sectors targeted in this project: cement (Tarmac Cement), ceramics (Wienerberger UK), glass (Glass Futures), and metals (CELSA Steel UK). Industry partners will facilitate knowledge transfer to the PIs in three main ways: (1) Supported data gathering around the composition and quantity of by-products and waste from the targeted FI sectors. (2) Provided insight around production methods and existing approaches to resource management. (3) Provided feedback and input on the output of the project.
Impact Disciplines involved: life cycle analysis The Foundation Industries (FI) are keen to reduce the amount of raw materials they consume, and maximise the value of the by-products they generate. However, they lack integrated information about the volumes, chemical composition and end use of 'waste' which presents a barrier to industrial symbiosis. We have therefore developed a simplified model to map material inputs and outputs for the cement, ceramics, steel and glass sectors in the UK by focussing on the flows of key chemical elements relevant to each sector and combining compositional and mass flow data for each material stream. Using Sankey diagrams to visualise these elemental flows, we identified 8 untapped potential opportunities for industrial symbiosis between the ceramics, cement, steel and glass sectors such the use of blast furnace slag (from steel production) as a replacement for brick clay (for use in the ceramics sector) and cement kiln dust (from cement production) as a replacement for limestone (for use in the steel sector). This element flow mapping approach may be applied to other industrial sectors and also at an individual plant level.
Start Year 2022
 
Description University of Leeds- Element-based mapping of waste and by-product material flows for industrial symbiosis 
Organisation Wienerberger
Country Austria 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Alastair Marsh is a post-doctoral researcher from the University of Leeds. He was awarded £26,864 for the project 'Element-based mapping of waste and by-product material flows for industrial symbiosis'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application
Collaborator Contribution The industry partners involved represented the four Foundational Industry sectors targeted in this project: cement (Tarmac Cement), ceramics (Wienerberger UK), glass (Glass Futures), and metals (CELSA Steel UK). Industry partners will facilitate knowledge transfer to the PIs in three main ways: (1) Supported data gathering around the composition and quantity of by-products and waste from the targeted FI sectors. (2) Provided insight around production methods and existing approaches to resource management. (3) Provided feedback and input on the output of the project.
Impact Disciplines involved: life cycle analysis The Foundation Industries (FI) are keen to reduce the amount of raw materials they consume, and maximise the value of the by-products they generate. However, they lack integrated information about the volumes, chemical composition and end use of 'waste' which presents a barrier to industrial symbiosis. We have therefore developed a simplified model to map material inputs and outputs for the cement, ceramics, steel and glass sectors in the UK by focussing on the flows of key chemical elements relevant to each sector and combining compositional and mass flow data for each material stream. Using Sankey diagrams to visualise these elemental flows, we identified 8 untapped potential opportunities for industrial symbiosis between the ceramics, cement, steel and glass sectors such the use of blast furnace slag (from steel production) as a replacement for brick clay (for use in the ceramics sector) and cement kiln dust (from cement production) as a replacement for limestone (for use in the steel sector). This element flow mapping approach may be applied to other industrial sectors and also at an individual plant level.
Start Year 2022
 
Description University of Leeds- Valorisation of metallurgical wastes through chemically bonded ceramics 
Organisation Luxfer MEL Technologies
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr Sam Adu-Amankwah from the University of Leeds was awarded £44,670 for the project 'Valorisation of metallurgical wastes through chemically bonded ceramics'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application, which includes Luxfer MEL Technologies
Collaborator Contribution Dr Sam Adu-Amankwah from the University of Leeds is the Principal Investigator on this small grant, which took place at the University of Leeds. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. Luxfer MEL Technologies will partake in project meetings to discuss its progress and its wider context. They will also characterise samples and supply samples of metal dross.
Impact The disciplines involved in the project include: civil engineering, materials science and chemistry. The linear manufacturing model of 'take, use, and dump' are not sustainable because resources are not unlimited while threats from climate change become glaring. The Foundation Industries being natural-resources intensive and with by-products often classified as wastes that end up in landfills can play a significant role in adopting circularity principles. In the circular economy, by-products retain some value and feed into other production process, maintaining the flow loop. However, feasibility of this hinges on availability of symbiotic manufacturing sectors as well as cost effective repurposing strategies where necessary. These do not exist for most by-products from the Foundation Industries and waste streams are often mixed. This project studied thermal and chemical repurposing methods for magnesium-rich by-products from the metallurgical and alloying industry with the objective of producing reactive magnesia. The resulting products were tested subsequently for reactivity and the role of contaminants when used to produce ceramics for niche repairs application. Optimal treatment was attained at 500 °C calcination at which point reactive magnesium formed. Beyond this, crystallization increased leading to the less reactive form of magnesium oxide, pericalse. Chemical treatment through carbonation did not produce measurable levels of carbonates. A chemically bonded ceramic-type binder was successfully produced under ambient conditions from the optimally treated by-product. This achieved comparable reactivity and mechanical properties as factory produced light-burnt magnesia. Impurities due to unsegregated waste streams profoundly modified the reaction and products formed. Mixed alloying oxides e.g. zirconium improved quality of the ceramic produced. The findings from this project demonstrate feasibility of metallurgical wastes for niche applications such as ceramic-type materials for repairs. This is significant as it provides basis for identifying valorisation protocol and the roles of constituents from other waste-streams as was the case for mixed alloying wastes.
Start Year 2022
 
Description University of Leeds- Valorisation of metallurgical wastes through chemically bonded ceramics 
Organisation University of Leeds
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr Sam Adu-Amankwah from the University of Leeds was awarded £44,670 for the project 'Valorisation of metallurgical wastes through chemically bonded ceramics'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application, which includes Luxfer MEL Technologies
Collaborator Contribution Dr Sam Adu-Amankwah from the University of Leeds is the Principal Investigator on this small grant, which took place at the University of Leeds. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. Luxfer MEL Technologies will partake in project meetings to discuss its progress and its wider context. They will also characterise samples and supply samples of metal dross.
Impact The disciplines involved in the project include: civil engineering, materials science and chemistry. The linear manufacturing model of 'take, use, and dump' are not sustainable because resources are not unlimited while threats from climate change become glaring. The Foundation Industries being natural-resources intensive and with by-products often classified as wastes that end up in landfills can play a significant role in adopting circularity principles. In the circular economy, by-products retain some value and feed into other production process, maintaining the flow loop. However, feasibility of this hinges on availability of symbiotic manufacturing sectors as well as cost effective repurposing strategies where necessary. These do not exist for most by-products from the Foundation Industries and waste streams are often mixed. This project studied thermal and chemical repurposing methods for magnesium-rich by-products from the metallurgical and alloying industry with the objective of producing reactive magnesia. The resulting products were tested subsequently for reactivity and the role of contaminants when used to produce ceramics for niche repairs application. Optimal treatment was attained at 500 °C calcination at which point reactive magnesium formed. Beyond this, crystallization increased leading to the less reactive form of magnesium oxide, pericalse. Chemical treatment through carbonation did not produce measurable levels of carbonates. A chemically bonded ceramic-type binder was successfully produced under ambient conditions from the optimally treated by-product. This achieved comparable reactivity and mechanical properties as factory produced light-burnt magnesia. Impurities due to unsegregated waste streams profoundly modified the reaction and products formed. Mixed alloying oxides e.g. zirconium improved quality of the ceramic produced. The findings from this project demonstrate feasibility of metallurgical wastes for niche applications such as ceramic-type materials for repairs. This is significant as it provides basis for identifying valorisation protocol and the roles of constituents from other waste-streams as was the case for mixed alloying wastes.
Start Year 2022
 
Description University of Liverpool- Improved Energy Efficiency of Float Glass Production 
Organisation Pilkington Glass
Department Pilkington Technology Centre
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Peter Green is an ear;y career lecturuer from the University of Liverpool, and was awarded £48,511 for the project: 'Improved Energy Efficiency of Float Glass Production'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application, which has industrial support from the NSG Group.
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Peter Green from the University of Liverpool is the Principal Investigator on this small grant, which took place at the University of Liverpool. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. Pilkington NSG provided training and support to the PDRA conducting the research whilst on-site, as well as access to data on the NSG Group float process data recording and management platform.
Impact The disciplines involved in the project included: engineering, machine learning, manufacturing processes, and autonomous systems Of all the 'enablers' of transformation, digitisation and control offers the greatest potential to impact across multiple Foundation Industry sectors and its benefits of reduced plant downtime and energy and raw material savings are clear. Implementation however, deviates significantly from the classic skill sets associated with the foundation industries, requiring knowledge of advanced computing, sensing, modelling and data handling. In the built environment, glass is pivotal in modern construction with ten million tonnes of float glass produced in Europe every year, with the UK currently having a 6% share of European glass production . Pilkington United Kingdom Limited, part of NSG Group, is a leading UK glass manufacturer and supplier with around 3,000 staff across the UK and producing a wide range of glass solutions (glass for architectural applications, solar panels, automotive equipment, touchscreens etc.) Being an energy-intensive manufacturing process and noting NSG Group's aim to achieve a 30% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030, this project explored the development of a data-based model which can, ultimately, be used to increase the efficiency of the float glass production. This study involved the development and deployment of a machine learning model which, having been trained on data gathered from 100s of sensors at the UK5 float glass plant in St. Helens, can be used to predict variations in product quality up to 72 hours into the future. The overall model was formulated using a Gaussian 'product of experts' approach, whereby separate models are each used to cover different regions of the input space before predictions are formulated using a weighted product of all models. The model is able to function in an online setting (allowing it to be updated using the most recent data from the UK5 plant). The model can be used to form different decision support tools (e.g. the optimiser, sensitivity analysis) to help increase the efficiency of float glass production. The approach is scalable to large datasets and, to the best of our knowledge, generic in that it can be extended to other float glass furnaces. NSG has directly funded another 6 months of research which has already been transferred into the Manufacturing Execution System used at the UK5 plant. Outputs include: Fault density estimation in float glass manufacturing using a robust-scalable Gaussian process approach, PhD thesis, submitted 23/02/2022
Start Year 2021
 
Description University of Liverpool- Improved Energy Efficiency of Float Glass Production 
Organisation University of Liverpool
Department School of Engineering
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Peter Green is an ear;y career lecturuer from the University of Liverpool, and was awarded £48,511 for the project: 'Improved Energy Efficiency of Float Glass Production'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application, which has industrial support from the NSG Group.
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Peter Green from the University of Liverpool is the Principal Investigator on this small grant, which took place at the University of Liverpool. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. Pilkington NSG provided training and support to the PDRA conducting the research whilst on-site, as well as access to data on the NSG Group float process data recording and management platform.
Impact The disciplines involved in the project included: engineering, machine learning, manufacturing processes, and autonomous systems Of all the 'enablers' of transformation, digitisation and control offers the greatest potential to impact across multiple Foundation Industry sectors and its benefits of reduced plant downtime and energy and raw material savings are clear. Implementation however, deviates significantly from the classic skill sets associated with the foundation industries, requiring knowledge of advanced computing, sensing, modelling and data handling. In the built environment, glass is pivotal in modern construction with ten million tonnes of float glass produced in Europe every year, with the UK currently having a 6% share of European glass production . Pilkington United Kingdom Limited, part of NSG Group, is a leading UK glass manufacturer and supplier with around 3,000 staff across the UK and producing a wide range of glass solutions (glass for architectural applications, solar panels, automotive equipment, touchscreens etc.) Being an energy-intensive manufacturing process and noting NSG Group's aim to achieve a 30% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030, this project explored the development of a data-based model which can, ultimately, be used to increase the efficiency of the float glass production. This study involved the development and deployment of a machine learning model which, having been trained on data gathered from 100s of sensors at the UK5 float glass plant in St. Helens, can be used to predict variations in product quality up to 72 hours into the future. The overall model was formulated using a Gaussian 'product of experts' approach, whereby separate models are each used to cover different regions of the input space before predictions are formulated using a weighted product of all models. The model is able to function in an online setting (allowing it to be updated using the most recent data from the UK5 plant). The model can be used to form different decision support tools (e.g. the optimiser, sensitivity analysis) to help increase the efficiency of float glass production. The approach is scalable to large datasets and, to the best of our knowledge, generic in that it can be extended to other float glass furnaces. NSG has directly funded another 6 months of research which has already been transferred into the Manufacturing Execution System used at the UK5 plant. Outputs include: Fault density estimation in float glass manufacturing using a robust-scalable Gaussian process approach, PhD thesis, submitted 23/02/2022
Start Year 2021
 
Description University of Manchester- Circularising the Pressure Moulding of Ceramics 
Organisation University of Manchester
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Ahu Gumrah Dumanli-Parry is a Fellow from the University of Manchester. She was awarded £28,096 for the project 'Circularising the Pressure Moulding of Ceramics'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Ahu Gumrah Dumanli-Parry is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to her. PCL Ceramics Ltd established in 1991, is one of the market leaders in developing resin moulds, materials, handling equipment and high-pressure casting technology for the sanitary ware, tableware, and technical ceramics industry worldwide. PCL will participate in the project by providing resin-based moulds for the high pressure casting process. PCL will work with their customer portfolio to obtain this data pertaining to the high pressure casting process. Therefore, PCL will commit one-person month of personnel time towards this project
Impact Disciplines involved: materials science In this project, we showcased an innovative way of processing ceramics in the dough form that is ideal for pressure-moulding (e.g., ram pressing and injection moulding) at room temperature with a minimum required pressure. This involved the incorporation of a single copolymer additive at a minimum amount to induce polymer bridging to obtain a self-standing, malleable dough structure. The stamping experiment showed that the pattern on the stamp is flawlessly copied onto the ceramic dough when the stamp is lifted. The dough formulation required little pressure, making it cost-effective and energy efficient. Additionally, a different non-malleable, yet injectable, formulation was developed for injection moulding that had lower viscosity. The resulting density of the sintered materials was measured to be 96.7% of the theoretical density, indicating a high level of densification and minimal porosity. Flexural strength of 172 MPa was obtained, using a three-point bending standard C1161-13. This new processing method has significant potential to facilitate the production of intricate and complex shapes without compromising the mechanical integrity of the materials. It offers several advantages over traditional casting methods, including increased productivity as well as reductions in the equipment cost, amount of chemicals, and CO2 emissions. The successful demonstration of the two moulding ability will facilitate development of advanced ceramics for tailored applications according to industry needs. An environmental impact assessment study was also carried out to provide a valuable insight, primarily for our industrial partner, which can be applied to different product development stages in the ceramics industry. Our analysis clearly indicates that our approach can contribute to the Ceramics Innovation Network's carbon-net-zero aims, demonstrating the potential for significant positive impact.
Start Year 2022
 
Description University of Manchester- Sustainable Replacements for Coal Tar Pitch Binders 
Organisation Morgan Advanced Materials
Department Morganite Electrical Carbon Ltd
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Christina Valles is a junior lecturer from the University of Manchester. She was awarded £55,975 for the project 'Sustainable Replacements for Coal Tar Pitch Binders'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application, which has industrial support from Morgan Advanced Materials.
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Christina Valles from the University of Manchester is the Principal Investigator on this small grant, which took place at the University of Manchester. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to her. Morgan Advanced Materials contributed chemicals, staff time to help with prototyping, and technical assistance to share best practice.
Impact The disciplines involved in the project include: Materials science, materials chemistry and electrical power engineering Coal Tar Pitch (CTP) is a residue formed from the distillation of coal tar and is widely used as a carbonisable/graphitisable binder to form carbon electrodes (e.g. for aluminium smelting), seals, specialty graphites for electric brushes and current collectors (e.g. wind turbine generators & rail pantograph systems), and molten metal-conveying components for the ferrous and non-ferrous metal industries. CTP, though, is fossil-derived and toxic and has recently been classified as a 'sunset' status material under REACH such that identification of a sustainable alternative is essential for the Foundation Industries dependent on these carbonised/graphitised materials. Wood Tar Biopitch (WTB), obtained from distilling sawdust at temperatures up to 1,000 °C under an inert atmosphere, shows promise as a safe and renewable binder. However, despite several decades of academic interest, socio-economic drivers are only now sufficient for its key shortcomings to be addressed. From a sustainable CTP alternative perspective, these shortcomings include: • carbon conversion yields below theoretical prediction, • obstacles to translation to existing manufacturing processes (e.g. poor impregnation and extrusion), • insufficient binding to particles, and • relatively poor properties of the resultant materials. The main output of this project has been the development of a first technical roadmap for replacing CTP with WTB across the foundation sectors (based on a combination of a deep literature review and the preliminary experimental results obtained during this project), which will then be used to guide future developments. The development of this first-generation roadmap has allowed us to engage with the wider sector users and identify the technical, economic, and funding drivers to define the next steps. This project has led us to identify the key focus for further research, as follows: • Within the 6 months, WTB was produced in the UoM, mixed with graphite particles and then carbonised to produce a carbon-carbon composites. • The performance of the WTB based composites currently underperform compared to those derived from CTP. • Commercial WTB supply is in its infancy, particularly compared to bio-oil. Hence in-house baseline material is needed to establish R&D knowhow. These points have been translated into objectives for a follow-on grant recently submitted with Morgan contributing as industry partner
Start Year 2022
 
Description University of Manchester- Sustainable Replacements for Coal Tar Pitch Binders 
Organisation University of Manchester
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Christina Valles is a junior lecturer from the University of Manchester. She was awarded £55,975 for the project 'Sustainable Replacements for Coal Tar Pitch Binders'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application, which has industrial support from Morgan Advanced Materials.
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Christina Valles from the University of Manchester is the Principal Investigator on this small grant, which took place at the University of Manchester. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to her. Morgan Advanced Materials contributed chemicals, staff time to help with prototyping, and technical assistance to share best practice.
Impact The disciplines involved in the project include: Materials science, materials chemistry and electrical power engineering Coal Tar Pitch (CTP) is a residue formed from the distillation of coal tar and is widely used as a carbonisable/graphitisable binder to form carbon electrodes (e.g. for aluminium smelting), seals, specialty graphites for electric brushes and current collectors (e.g. wind turbine generators & rail pantograph systems), and molten metal-conveying components for the ferrous and non-ferrous metal industries. CTP, though, is fossil-derived and toxic and has recently been classified as a 'sunset' status material under REACH such that identification of a sustainable alternative is essential for the Foundation Industries dependent on these carbonised/graphitised materials. Wood Tar Biopitch (WTB), obtained from distilling sawdust at temperatures up to 1,000 °C under an inert atmosphere, shows promise as a safe and renewable binder. However, despite several decades of academic interest, socio-economic drivers are only now sufficient for its key shortcomings to be addressed. From a sustainable CTP alternative perspective, these shortcomings include: • carbon conversion yields below theoretical prediction, • obstacles to translation to existing manufacturing processes (e.g. poor impregnation and extrusion), • insufficient binding to particles, and • relatively poor properties of the resultant materials. The main output of this project has been the development of a first technical roadmap for replacing CTP with WTB across the foundation sectors (based on a combination of a deep literature review and the preliminary experimental results obtained during this project), which will then be used to guide future developments. The development of this first-generation roadmap has allowed us to engage with the wider sector users and identify the technical, economic, and funding drivers to define the next steps. This project has led us to identify the key focus for further research, as follows: • Within the 6 months, WTB was produced in the UoM, mixed with graphite particles and then carbonised to produce a carbon-carbon composites. • The performance of the WTB based composites currently underperform compared to those derived from CTP. • Commercial WTB supply is in its infancy, particularly compared to bio-oil. Hence in-house baseline material is needed to establish R&D knowhow. These points have been translated into objectives for a follow-on grant recently submitted with Morgan contributing as industry partner
Start Year 2022
 
Description University of Manchester: Data-driven optimisation framework for assessing energy and emission saving potentials in foundation industries 
Organisation Palm Paper Ltd
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Alessandra Parisio is a junior lecturer from the University of Manchester. She was awarded £54,439 for the project 'Data-driven optimisation framework for assessing energy and emission saving potentials in foundation industries'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application by introducing Dr. Pariso to the industry partners at a workshop we organised 8th Feb 2022
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Alessandra Parisio from the University of Manchester is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to her. Palm Paper provided provided £2500 of in-kind support in the form technical advice and provision of data
Impact Disciplines involved in the project include Power & Energy, Control Engineering and Optimisation, Dynamic modelling, Computer Science (Machine learning/Artificial Intelligence) and Software programming. This project focussed on the assessment of prospective energy and cost savings associated with foundation industries. A case study of Palm Paper was considered but the underlying concepts transcend this specific application. Palm Paper is a paper production company which produces newsprints and news paper grades from completely recycled materials who rely on natural gas and electricity for their energy sources. The project took place over 3 phases (1): Building Datasets: this phase entailed the development of appropriate experiments required to capture dynamic or static properties of the paper production process. It encompasses data collection, processing and analysis which forms the basis of the system modelling. (2): Identification of Benchmark Representative Production Activities: This task required the identification of manipulated, controlled and measured variables based on available data and included interactions between the boilers, combined heat and power (CHP) systems, paper separation plants, and pulping and de-inking station. (3): Data-driven modelling: Each sub process was modelled and subsequently combined to represent the whole plant. Both static and dynamic models were considered depending on their suitability for predicting process outputs. (4): Optimisation: The impact of this project is specifically embodied in the optimisation phase. A potential reduction in the gas and electricity consumed for paper production is projected with a Model Predictive Controller implemented. This translated to eventual processing cost reduction and energy savings, which are expected to range between 10% and 50%. The research identified suitable process models describing subunits of a paper production plant for the purpose of variable predictions and energy optimisation. Models were developed which captured static and dynamic behaviours of the plant and results are being compiled for a more detailed journal publication.
Start Year 2022
 
Description University of Manchester: Data-driven optimisation framework for assessing energy and emission saving potentials in foundation industries 
Organisation University of Manchester
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Alessandra Parisio is a junior lecturer from the University of Manchester. She was awarded £54,439 for the project 'Data-driven optimisation framework for assessing energy and emission saving potentials in foundation industries'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application by introducing Dr. Pariso to the industry partners at a workshop we organised 8th Feb 2022
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Alessandra Parisio from the University of Manchester is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to her. Palm Paper provided provided £2500 of in-kind support in the form technical advice and provision of data
Impact Disciplines involved in the project include Power & Energy, Control Engineering and Optimisation, Dynamic modelling, Computer Science (Machine learning/Artificial Intelligence) and Software programming. This project focussed on the assessment of prospective energy and cost savings associated with foundation industries. A case study of Palm Paper was considered but the underlying concepts transcend this specific application. Palm Paper is a paper production company which produces newsprints and news paper grades from completely recycled materials who rely on natural gas and electricity for their energy sources. The project took place over 3 phases (1): Building Datasets: this phase entailed the development of appropriate experiments required to capture dynamic or static properties of the paper production process. It encompasses data collection, processing and analysis which forms the basis of the system modelling. (2): Identification of Benchmark Representative Production Activities: This task required the identification of manipulated, controlled and measured variables based on available data and included interactions between the boilers, combined heat and power (CHP) systems, paper separation plants, and pulping and de-inking station. (3): Data-driven modelling: Each sub process was modelled and subsequently combined to represent the whole plant. Both static and dynamic models were considered depending on their suitability for predicting process outputs. (4): Optimisation: The impact of this project is specifically embodied in the optimisation phase. A potential reduction in the gas and electricity consumed for paper production is projected with a Model Predictive Controller implemented. This translated to eventual processing cost reduction and energy savings, which are expected to range between 10% and 50%. The research identified suitable process models describing subunits of a paper production plant for the purpose of variable predictions and energy optimisation. Models were developed which captured static and dynamic behaviours of the plant and results are being compiled for a more detailed journal publication.
Start Year 2022
 
Description University of Nottingham- Circular business model innovation in the UK cement, glass, and ceramics industries 
Organisation University of Nottingham
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Maria Karafyllia is from the University of Nottingham. She was awarded £46,089 for the project 'Circular business model innovation in the UK cement, glass, and ceramics industries'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application.
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Maria Karafyllia is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to her.
Impact The UK Foundation Industries are worth £52B, produce 28 million tonnes of materials per year and account for 10% of the UK total CO2 emissions, posing a major challenge to meet the UK Government's legal commitment to net zero emissions by 2050. The UK Foundation Industries also have low profit margins, making them vulnerable to changes in energy cost and to international competition. These industries lack tailored circular business models that will enable them to create, deliver, and capture customer value in more sustainable ways, hindering their contribution to the national net zero target by 2050, and their international competitiveness. Moreover, the UK Foundation Industries underperform in relation to the EDI agenda. This project focuses on cement, ceramics, and glass industries, and informs all the UK Foundation Industries. It aims to (1) embed self-sustaining industry practices regarding EDI in new circular business models, (2) establish a knowledge transfer network to drive EDI transformation, and to develop and share best practice, and (3) develop a compelling business case for the UK Foundation Industries with the key components being EDI, Net Zero, innovation, future skills, and digitisation.
Start Year 2023
 
Description University of Nottingham- Enabling business models innovation for sustainability in the UK glass sector 
Organisation British Glass
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Luis Torres is from the University of Nottingham. He was awarded £42,211 for the project 'Enabling business models innovation for sustainability in the UK glass sector'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application, by introducing the PI to the British Glass at the Enablers of Transformation in Foundation Industries, Leeds (12/10/2022)
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Luis Torres is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. British Glass will (1) provide existing practices or relevant documents regarding policy interventions enabling business model innovation for sustainability in the UK glass sector (2) Join three stage one-hour interviews with members of top management teams and advisor teams (3) Provide links to companies for site visits (4) Participate in two workshops at the academic institution by an organisational member. This contribution will provide important inputs into the proposed work so that the outputs are tailored to the circular business needs of the UK foundation industries
Impact Disciplines involved in the project: Business, Engineering This research provides an understanding of policy interventions needed to enable business model innovation for circular economy in the flat glass industry in the UK. The focus of the project is on flat glass products (windows and glazing) that are typically used by the construction sector. This scope is justified by the high circularity potential of these materials but the low actual recycling rates. Keeping flat glass within a circular economy model presents a great opportunity for decarbonization, and it is economically beneficial. However, public policy attention has been put on recycling and reusing container glass, while most end-of-life flat glazing is not recycled and reusing it is less appropriate. This project asked what policy interventions are needed to enable sustainable business model innovation in this industry, and how does the role of the government need to evolve to facilitate this transformation. We worked closely with British Glass during all the stages of the project. We reviewed good practices in the European Union; interviewed industry stakeholders representing recycling, construction, and manufacturing, among others; and held a workshop where representatives from the construction, glazing, manufacturing, and recycling sectors discussed the future of flat glass recycling. Our findings show that policy and industry initiatives need to focus on improving supply chain integration, the availability of recycling infrastructure (including collection, transport, and re-processing of cullet), the economic incentives of recycling versus sending to landfill, and the legislation that would encourage recycling. As government action around flat-glass recycling is still in early stages, industry-driven initiatives should focus on collective action aimed at achieving greater coordination and awareness in the supply chain, as well as promoting that cullet is treated as a resource instead of a waste material.
Start Year 2023
 
Description University of Nottingham- Enabling business models innovation for sustainability in the UK glass sector 
Organisation University of Nottingham
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Luis Torres is from the University of Nottingham. He was awarded £42,211 for the project 'Enabling business models innovation for sustainability in the UK glass sector'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application, by introducing the PI to the British Glass at the Enablers of Transformation in Foundation Industries, Leeds (12/10/2022)
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Luis Torres is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. British Glass will (1) provide existing practices or relevant documents regarding policy interventions enabling business model innovation for sustainability in the UK glass sector (2) Join three stage one-hour interviews with members of top management teams and advisor teams (3) Provide links to companies for site visits (4) Participate in two workshops at the academic institution by an organisational member. This contribution will provide important inputs into the proposed work so that the outputs are tailored to the circular business needs of the UK foundation industries
Impact Disciplines involved in the project: Business, Engineering This research provides an understanding of policy interventions needed to enable business model innovation for circular economy in the flat glass industry in the UK. The focus of the project is on flat glass products (windows and glazing) that are typically used by the construction sector. This scope is justified by the high circularity potential of these materials but the low actual recycling rates. Keeping flat glass within a circular economy model presents a great opportunity for decarbonization, and it is economically beneficial. However, public policy attention has been put on recycling and reusing container glass, while most end-of-life flat glazing is not recycled and reusing it is less appropriate. This project asked what policy interventions are needed to enable sustainable business model innovation in this industry, and how does the role of the government need to evolve to facilitate this transformation. We worked closely with British Glass during all the stages of the project. We reviewed good practices in the European Union; interviewed industry stakeholders representing recycling, construction, and manufacturing, among others; and held a workshop where representatives from the construction, glazing, manufacturing, and recycling sectors discussed the future of flat glass recycling. Our findings show that policy and industry initiatives need to focus on improving supply chain integration, the availability of recycling infrastructure (including collection, transport, and re-processing of cullet), the economic incentives of recycling versus sending to landfill, and the legislation that would encourage recycling. As government action around flat-glass recycling is still in early stages, industry-driven initiatives should focus on collective action aimed at achieving greater coordination and awareness in the supply chain, as well as promoting that cullet is treated as a resource instead of a waste material.
Start Year 2023
 
Description University of Nottingham- Sustainable asphalt pavements with recycled concrete aggregate and waste glass 
Organisation University of Nottingham
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Haopeng Wang is a post-doctoral researcher from the University of Nottingham. He was awarded £27,894 for the project 'Sustainable asphalt pavements with recycled concrete aggregate and waste glass'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Haopeng Wang is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. Asphalt serves as the primary surfacing material for the road infrastructure in the UK, comprising mineral aggregates and bitumen. However, foundation industries in the UK generate a substantial amount of waste concrete and glass, which presents an opportunity to replace the limited natural aggregates. This project focused on integrating recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) and recycled glass cullet (RGC) from the foundation industry into the production of sustainable and high-performance asphalt pavements. One of the main challenges associated with using recycled aggregate materials is their lower mechanical strength and weaker bonding with bituminous mortar. To address these issues, this project employed two surface treatment methods for RCA: polymer impregnation using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and pozzolan slurry soaking, using either fly ash and silica fume (FA&SF), fly ash and cement (FA&C) or fumed nanosilica (NSF). The density, water absorption, porosity and surface morphology of RCA were comprehensively assessed before and after the surface treatment. The results show that both surface treatment methods reduce the water absorption and porosity, as well as enhance the microstructure and improve the surface homogeneity of RCA. Overall, the utilization of RCA (and RGC) derived from the foundation industry holds great promise as a viable alternative to the excessive use of natural aggregates in the construction of future high-quality and sustainable asphalt pavements. Based on the findings in this project, the PI has secured another grant entitled: "Enabling Construction Material Circularity in the Transport Infrastructure Sector" awarded by Innovation Launchpad Network+ EPSRC in collaboration with Connected Places Catapult and a Peer reviewed conference paper has been published: Wang, H., Fang, Y., Wang, F., and Airey, G. (2023) Property enhancement of recycled concrete aggregates through surface treatment. Presented in the 7th Chinese-European Workshop on Functional Pavement (CEW 2023), July 2-4, 2023, Birmingham, UK.
Impact Disciplines involved: materials, modelling, characterisation Asphalt is the major surfacing material of UK's road infrastructure which comprises mineral aggregates and bitumen. Meanwhile, the foundation industry generates millions of tons of waste concrete and glass in the UK, which could potentially be a replacement of the scarce natural aggregates. The current project aims to incorporate recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) and recycled glass cullet (RGC) from foundation industries into the production of high performance and sustainable asphalt pavements. The green technology developed by using RCA and GGC as natural aggregate substitutes in asphalt production can bring a number of technical, environmental, economic and societal benefits. Specifically, it will (i) provide a better understanding of the interaction mechanism between asphalt, cement concrete and glass; (ii) significantly reduce the exploitation of natural aggregates and the amount of disposed waste concrete and glass materials; (iii) thus benefit the environment by reducing the carbon footprint of the construction industry; (iv) minimize the costs of pavement construction. The outputs of the project will help the foundation industry and highway industry to develop strategies in material recycling for long-term sustainability, managing material processing, and providing cost saving solutions. This aligns with the UK's Industrial Strategy and is vital to the national economy and quality of life.
Start Year 2022
 
Description University of Sheffield- Introducing High-Temperature Hyperspectral Electronics to the Foundation Industries 
Organisation Tata Steel Europe
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Jon Willmott from the University of Sheffield was awarded £55,987 for the project ' Introducing High-Temperature Hyperspectral Electronics to the Foundation Industries'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application
Collaborator Contribution Prof. Jon Willmott from the University of Sheffield is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. Tata Steel Europe provided £20k of in-kind support in the form of resources and samples
Impact The disciplines involved in the project include: Electronics, Imaging, Metrology (measurement science), Material Science. Hyperspectral metrology utilising a visible range hyperspectral imaging system has been verified through testing with high-temperature hydrocarbon flames. Gas-phase flames were imaged, and the spectral emission of methane-air flames comprehensively investigated. The results demonstrated that the newly developed system can capture the gas-phase flames precisely and that the high spatial resolution targets the combustion reaction zone. The ratio of intermediate products with characteristic bonding (C2 and CH) may be determined, thereby monitoring the mixture of fuel and oxygen and enabling improvements in energy efficiency. In addition, a mid-wavelength, infrared (MWIR) spectrometer was successfully built with low cost, commercial off the shelf parts. The optical design software, Zemax suggested that a spectral range of 3 - 4 µm with resolution of <20 nm / pixel was achievable with the current design. The MWIR detector was tested with a blackbody furnace, demonstrating the circuit worked correctly and that the detector had adequate sensitivity to temperatures that radiate energy at these wavelengths. Although proof of concept for monitoring of NOx emissions was broadly shown, the arrangement of the optics required further improvement due to difficulty in alignment, necessitating a higher tolerance optic block. Our spin-out company, PyrOptik Instruments Limited, will look to exploit the outputs of this work commercially, under university licence, offering services to the Foundation Industries, particularly for the energy generation.
Start Year 2022
 
Description University of Sheffield- Introducing High-Temperature Hyperspectral Electronics to the Foundation Industries 
Organisation University of Sheffield
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Jon Willmott from the University of Sheffield was awarded £55,987 for the project ' Introducing High-Temperature Hyperspectral Electronics to the Foundation Industries'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application
Collaborator Contribution Prof. Jon Willmott from the University of Sheffield is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. Tata Steel Europe provided £20k of in-kind support in the form of resources and samples
Impact The disciplines involved in the project include: Electronics, Imaging, Metrology (measurement science), Material Science. Hyperspectral metrology utilising a visible range hyperspectral imaging system has been verified through testing with high-temperature hydrocarbon flames. Gas-phase flames were imaged, and the spectral emission of methane-air flames comprehensively investigated. The results demonstrated that the newly developed system can capture the gas-phase flames precisely and that the high spatial resolution targets the combustion reaction zone. The ratio of intermediate products with characteristic bonding (C2 and CH) may be determined, thereby monitoring the mixture of fuel and oxygen and enabling improvements in energy efficiency. In addition, a mid-wavelength, infrared (MWIR) spectrometer was successfully built with low cost, commercial off the shelf parts. The optical design software, Zemax suggested that a spectral range of 3 - 4 µm with resolution of <20 nm / pixel was achievable with the current design. The MWIR detector was tested with a blackbody furnace, demonstrating the circuit worked correctly and that the detector had adequate sensitivity to temperatures that radiate energy at these wavelengths. Although proof of concept for monitoring of NOx emissions was broadly shown, the arrangement of the optics required further improvement due to difficulty in alignment, necessitating a higher tolerance optic block. Our spin-out company, PyrOptik Instruments Limited, will look to exploit the outputs of this work commercially, under university licence, offering services to the Foundation Industries, particularly for the energy generation.
Start Year 2022
 
Description University of Sheffield- Low-temperature densification of Al2O3 through a modified cold-sintering process 
Organisation Johnson Matthey
Department Johnson Matthey Technology Centre
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Edoardo Mantheakis is a post-doctoral researcher from the University of Sheffield. He was awarded £24,676 for the project Low-temperature densification of Al2O3 through a modified cold-sintering process'. Dr. Mantheakis is using the facilities of my research group for this project and the TFIN+ was instrumental in providing the funding
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Edoardo Mantheakis is the PI on the project and was introduced to Johnson Matthey, a long time collaborative partner of my group. Johnson Matthey is a British multinational specialising in chemicals and sustainable technologies, heavily involved in providing key capabilities within the chemical and sustainable technology sectors to enable the UK transition to net zero. Johnson Matthey are not currently recipients of large scale Transforming Foundation Industries Challenge funds. The proposed project aligns closely with their strategy to facilitate sustainable manufacturing through the development of a process that could lead to low-energy alumina ceramic production, that directly feeds into their main catalyst business and can be applied to a wide range of technologies. The work has great commercial potential to re-invent alumina production worldwide, resulting in large scale energy and cost savings. Johnson Matthey is providing an in-kind contribution of ~ £15,000 covering expert guidance, donated consumables, and use of experimental equipment at Johnson Matthey Technology Centre (JMTC), Sonning, UK. This includes monthly meetings with Dr Hong Ren who is a principle scientist in the Department for Materials at JMTC. These meetings will provide expertise on both the fabrication of ceramic specimens and characterisation techniques required to enable a pathway for industrial exploitation. Johnson Matthey will also provide pseudo-boehmite raw materials with which to conduct experiments with. Use of experimental equipment at JMTC, including SEM, TEM, and EPMA, will enable further in-depth characterisation to support any future publication. In addition to the in-kind contribution, Johnson Matthey will provide a monetary (cash) contribution of ~ £5,000 to cover the expenses of a 1-month placement at JMTC to conduct the aforementioned characterisation experiments
Impact Disciplines: materials science a-Al2O3 is a technical/advanced ceramic used in applications such as electrical insulation, wear, and corrosion resistance, with approximately 120,000 metric tonnes manufactured per year worldwide. Conventional processing of a-Al2O3 ceramics requires significant effort in optimising physical powder characteristics through reduction in particle size, followed by sintering at ~ 1600 °C to achieve the required densification. In this project, the technique of cold-sintering was considered as an aid to densification, the aim being to reduce significantly the sintering temperature thereby offering significant energy savings in processing and also decreasing the intrinsic costs of infrastructure and capital equipment (furnace and element technology is far less stringent when densification can be achieved at =1400°C). Pseudo-boehmite (Al(O)(OH)n) is a low cost raw material used in the fabrication of alumina powders. It decomposes on heating to form ? alumina at >1100°C after passing through a complex sequence of phase transitions. It can be functionalised as a prelude to cold sintering using ~1 molar acetic acid to form a surface coating of acetate-alumoxane powder. The functionalised powder may then be cold sintered to near 100 % dense if required but in this study the pseudo-boehmite was mixed with aAl2O3 and aluminium nitrate to form cold sintered dense composites which could subsequently be heat treated to form aAl2O3 pellets. A range of pressure, cold sintering temperatures and boehmite/a-Al2O3/aluminium nitrate ratios were studied and the phase assemblage and densification investigated. Although fully dense a-Al2O3 pellets were not achieved at 1200°C, large areas of the pellets had densified with evidence of 120° triple junctions in parts of the ceramic, Figure 1. The absence of full densification suggests that better mixing may be required during the processing sets to ensure a homogenous distribution of the starting powders and potentially higher temperatures (even 1400°C would still offer a significant energy saving and commercial advantage in capital equipment and infrastructure). This work has been extended through a further Early Career Researcher (Beatriz Almeida) supported by the European Ceramic Society and has formed part of an Engineering and Physical Sciences Council grant submission. A comprehensive publication of the data is planned.
Start Year 2022
 
Description University of Sheffield: Sustainable advanced manufacturing via ML-assisted exploitation of sensing and data infrastructure 
Organisation Robinson Brothers
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Iñaki Esnaola from the University of Sheffield was awarded £46,522 for the project on 'Sustainable advanced manufacturing via ML-assisted exploitation of sensing and data infrastructure '. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application by introducing Dr. Esnaola to the industry partner.
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Iñaki Esnaola is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. Robinson Brothers provided access to specialised information and process data, and access to technical specialists at their company
Impact Disciplines involved- AI, manufacturing, machine learning. Machine learning (ML) and data science underpin research disciplines that are prominent in numerous manufacturing sectors, and are already achieving measurable impacts in high value, low volume sector such as aerospace and automotive. The applications supported through research in ML and data science are typically around process modelling, monitoring, optimisation, control and decision making. This project aimed to develop integral data acquisition and analytics frameworks that leverage expert process knowledge with ML techniques to generate informed data infrastructure design guidelines that will accelerate uptake of ML in the foundation industries. This project demonstrated that regardless of the amount of data that is captured, data science and ML tools can help improve the analysis and optimisation of manufacturing processes within foundation industries. While traditionally manufacturing within these sectors tend to operate in data-scarce regimes, data driven approaches that leverage first-principles understanding of the physical processes can enhance the analytical approach. The projects has proposed a mathematically rigorous quantitative framework that enables stakeholders to leverage their data with the following tools and methods: ? A stochastic model that can adapt to different levels of uncertainty, complexity, and data availability regimes. ? A data acquisition framework that also produces information metrics describing the evidence captured by different data sources about the parameters determining process performance. ? An ML framework that adapts to the amount of available data and incorporates the evidence provided by the information metrics into the task.
Start Year 2022
 
Description University of Warwick- Atomistic scale simulation of the magnetic anisotropy in steels 
Organisation British Steel
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Lei Zhou is a post-doctoral researcher from the University of Warwick. He was awarded £23,985 for the project 'Atomistic scale simulation of the magnetic anisotropy in steels '. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Lei Zhou is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. Tata Steel and British Steel have products where texture and anisotropic grain morphology are key microstructure parameters that affect magnetic and mechanical properties. Both industrial partners have offered support in terms of sample provision, access to equipment and staff time to attend regular progress review meetings and technical discussions
Impact Disciplines involved in the project: Steel metallurgy, magnetism, modelling Steel is the most used material globally by value and one of the most recyclable materials, making it a vital foundation industry. Improved monitoring of processes is a key part of sustainability, growth and modernisation for the steel industry. Electromagnetic (EM) sensors are one of the ideal candidates, which have been applied to microstructure monitoring and control. The project developed the fundamental modelling capability to relate texture to magnetic properties and generate valuable magnetic parameter data for crystallographic anisotropy in steels that will support the use of EM sensors for texture characterisation online in steel mills. The measurement of remanence with an angle to the rolling direction in the rolling plane has been identified as the optimum experimental method to measure the texture in steels. This led to future works in both modelling and EM sensor measurement research to be followed up after the project period. The project allowed the PI Dr Frank Zhou to build up an extended network of academic and industrial partners, and he subsequently submitted two fellowship applications, one to the EPSRC open fellowship scheme and one for a Royal Society University fellowship.
Start Year 2022
 
Description University of Warwick- Atomistic scale simulation of the magnetic anisotropy in steels 
Organisation TATA Steel
Department Tata Limited UK
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Lei Zhou is a post-doctoral researcher from the University of Warwick. He was awarded £23,985 for the project 'Atomistic scale simulation of the magnetic anisotropy in steels '. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Lei Zhou is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. Tata Steel and British Steel have products where texture and anisotropic grain morphology are key microstructure parameters that affect magnetic and mechanical properties. Both industrial partners have offered support in terms of sample provision, access to equipment and staff time to attend regular progress review meetings and technical discussions
Impact Disciplines involved in the project: Steel metallurgy, magnetism, modelling Steel is the most used material globally by value and one of the most recyclable materials, making it a vital foundation industry. Improved monitoring of processes is a key part of sustainability, growth and modernisation for the steel industry. Electromagnetic (EM) sensors are one of the ideal candidates, which have been applied to microstructure monitoring and control. The project developed the fundamental modelling capability to relate texture to magnetic properties and generate valuable magnetic parameter data for crystallographic anisotropy in steels that will support the use of EM sensors for texture characterisation online in steel mills. The measurement of remanence with an angle to the rolling direction in the rolling plane has been identified as the optimum experimental method to measure the texture in steels. This led to future works in both modelling and EM sensor measurement research to be followed up after the project period. The project allowed the PI Dr Frank Zhou to build up an extended network of academic and industrial partners, and he subsequently submitted two fellowship applications, one to the EPSRC open fellowship scheme and one for a Royal Society University fellowship.
Start Year 2022
 
Description University of Warwick- Atomistic scale simulation of the magnetic anisotropy in steels 
Organisation University of Warwick
Department Warwick Manufacturing Group
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Lei Zhou is a post-doctoral researcher from the University of Warwick. He was awarded £23,985 for the project 'Atomistic scale simulation of the magnetic anisotropy in steels '. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Lei Zhou is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. Tata Steel and British Steel have products where texture and anisotropic grain morphology are key microstructure parameters that affect magnetic and mechanical properties. Both industrial partners have offered support in terms of sample provision, access to equipment and staff time to attend regular progress review meetings and technical discussions
Impact Disciplines involved in the project: Steel metallurgy, magnetism, modelling Steel is the most used material globally by value and one of the most recyclable materials, making it a vital foundation industry. Improved monitoring of processes is a key part of sustainability, growth and modernisation for the steel industry. Electromagnetic (EM) sensors are one of the ideal candidates, which have been applied to microstructure monitoring and control. The project developed the fundamental modelling capability to relate texture to magnetic properties and generate valuable magnetic parameter data for crystallographic anisotropy in steels that will support the use of EM sensors for texture characterisation online in steel mills. The measurement of remanence with an angle to the rolling direction in the rolling plane has been identified as the optimum experimental method to measure the texture in steels. This led to future works in both modelling and EM sensor measurement research to be followed up after the project period. The project allowed the PI Dr Frank Zhou to build up an extended network of academic and industrial partners, and he subsequently submitted two fellowship applications, one to the EPSRC open fellowship scheme and one for a Royal Society University fellowship.
Start Year 2022
 
Description University of Warwick- Low-carbon manufacturing of mineral wool using steelmaking slags and silicatewastes from multisector 
Organisation University of Warwick
Department Warwick Manufacturing Group
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Zhiming Yan is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Warwick. He was awarded £23,952 for the project 'Low-carbon manufacturing of mineral wool using steelmaking slags and silicatewastes from multisector '. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Zhiming Yan is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. Glass Futures provided advice and technical support, raw materials and industrial data
Impact Disciplines involved: high temperature physical chemistry, steelmaking, mineral wool manufacturing A large amount of high-temperature steelmaking slag (1400~1600 ?) is produced during pyrometallurgical production. The heat (energy) carried by these slags is released into the atmosphere during the tapping process and has not been used effectively. On the other hand, a large amount of heat is required to remelt the cold slag during manufacturing mineral wool, and high-silicon materials are added to facilitate fibrization. In this project, the heat of molten metallurgical slag, mainly BOF slag as it is not well used, and high-silica wastes (glass waste) were used to directly manufacture high-quality mineral wool to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions. 1) A modified mixture with slag/glass/SiO2/Al2O3=4/4/1/1 was proposed. The melting temperature, viscosity, and composition meet the requirement of wool fibre manufacturing. 2) The higher temperature and lower viscosity tend to create fibres with a smaller diameter. 3) The CO2 emissions will decrease by more than 50.04kg/t wool due to the heat from slag and faster smelting. For follow-on activities, it is proposed to use a four-roll high-speed centrifuge test to manufacture mineral wool as this method is widely in industry. More characterization and tests are needed for the product. Futher opprtunities for exploitation/implementation of the research findings with industry will be sought as the results so far as quite promising
Start Year 2022
 
Description University of Warwick- Overcoming Adoption Barriers of Next Generation Processing Technologies in Ceramic/Glass Industries 
Organisation Lucideon
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Taofeeq Ibn-Mohammed is from the University of Warwick. He was awarded £55,823 for the project 'Overcoming Adoption Barriers of Next Generation Processing Technologies in Ceramic/Glass Industries'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Taofeeq Ibn-Mohammed is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. The project has support from Morgan Advanced Materials, one of the world's leading ceramics producers, as well as Lucideon Ltd, an SME based in Stoke-on-Trent and the lead of a £18.1m Strength in Places Fund grant for advanced ceramics in the Midlands, and the Materials Processing Institute (MPI), a centre for innovation in Advanced Materials including ceramics and glass. All three industrial partners offer support in planning, carrying out and disseminating the results of our research proposal. In particular, Morgan Advanced Materials commit to assistance with the questionnaire and interview design, to ensure our questions are fit for purpose and provide initial input. The partners also offer opportunities for introduction to industrial partners, support through advice from their industrial perspective, and active participation in our advisory board for the project meetings, and the final workshop. They will also help in the dissemination of the final project output reports and be instrumental in scoping future activities which will stem from this project. Their support is valued in total at £27500.00 and represents a considerable vote of confidence in our proposed methodology and the purpose of our project.
Impact Disciplines involved in the project: Sustainable Systems Engineering, Materials Science & Engineering, Sustainable Supply Chain, Quantitative Social Science The ceramic and glass sectors are energy and carbon intensive and constitute a core part of the UK's supply chain for numerous important markets, putting in substantial strives to reduce CO2 emissions and improve resource efficiency. Next generation processing technologies (NGPTs), being new technologies that provide high energy efficiency and process intensification supported by transformative digital technologies, are touted as key decarbonisation enablers in both sectors, but there are adoption barriers to overcome. Through a critical literature review and thematic analysis of interviews and workshop data, sixteen (16) barriers were identified, broadly grouped into economic, organisational, external & regulatory, and operational & technological barriers. Interpretive structural modelling was adopted to deepen the understanding of the contextual interactions and interdependencies between the sixteen barriers, for targeted intervention options prioritisation, from the perspective of glass and ceramics stakeholders. Workforce availability and skills gap, high initial costs, prioritisation of short-term goals, operational complexity, lack of regulatory support and complexity of existing regulations, amongst other barriers were established to be dominant in the interplay between NGPTs adoption and net-zero transitioning. Integrated strategies, which tackles multiple barriers simultaneously revolve around a balanced approach, combining technological innovation with organisational change management, robust economic planning, and effective policy interventions.
Start Year 2023
 
Description University of Warwick- Overcoming Adoption Barriers of Next Generation Processing Technologies in Ceramic/Glass Industries 
Organisation Materials Processing Institute
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Taofeeq Ibn-Mohammed is from the University of Warwick. He was awarded £55,823 for the project 'Overcoming Adoption Barriers of Next Generation Processing Technologies in Ceramic/Glass Industries'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Taofeeq Ibn-Mohammed is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. The project has support from Morgan Advanced Materials, one of the world's leading ceramics producers, as well as Lucideon Ltd, an SME based in Stoke-on-Trent and the lead of a £18.1m Strength in Places Fund grant for advanced ceramics in the Midlands, and the Materials Processing Institute (MPI), a centre for innovation in Advanced Materials including ceramics and glass. All three industrial partners offer support in planning, carrying out and disseminating the results of our research proposal. In particular, Morgan Advanced Materials commit to assistance with the questionnaire and interview design, to ensure our questions are fit for purpose and provide initial input. The partners also offer opportunities for introduction to industrial partners, support through advice from their industrial perspective, and active participation in our advisory board for the project meetings, and the final workshop. They will also help in the dissemination of the final project output reports and be instrumental in scoping future activities which will stem from this project. Their support is valued in total at £27500.00 and represents a considerable vote of confidence in our proposed methodology and the purpose of our project.
Impact Disciplines involved in the project: Sustainable Systems Engineering, Materials Science & Engineering, Sustainable Supply Chain, Quantitative Social Science The ceramic and glass sectors are energy and carbon intensive and constitute a core part of the UK's supply chain for numerous important markets, putting in substantial strives to reduce CO2 emissions and improve resource efficiency. Next generation processing technologies (NGPTs), being new technologies that provide high energy efficiency and process intensification supported by transformative digital technologies, are touted as key decarbonisation enablers in both sectors, but there are adoption barriers to overcome. Through a critical literature review and thematic analysis of interviews and workshop data, sixteen (16) barriers were identified, broadly grouped into economic, organisational, external & regulatory, and operational & technological barriers. Interpretive structural modelling was adopted to deepen the understanding of the contextual interactions and interdependencies between the sixteen barriers, for targeted intervention options prioritisation, from the perspective of glass and ceramics stakeholders. Workforce availability and skills gap, high initial costs, prioritisation of short-term goals, operational complexity, lack of regulatory support and complexity of existing regulations, amongst other barriers were established to be dominant in the interplay between NGPTs adoption and net-zero transitioning. Integrated strategies, which tackles multiple barriers simultaneously revolve around a balanced approach, combining technological innovation with organisational change management, robust economic planning, and effective policy interventions.
Start Year 2023
 
Description University of Warwick- Overcoming Adoption Barriers of Next Generation Processing Technologies in Ceramic/Glass Industries 
Organisation Morgan Advanced Materials
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Taofeeq Ibn-Mohammed is from the University of Warwick. He was awarded £55,823 for the project 'Overcoming Adoption Barriers of Next Generation Processing Technologies in Ceramic/Glass Industries'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Taofeeq Ibn-Mohammed is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. The project has support from Morgan Advanced Materials, one of the world's leading ceramics producers, as well as Lucideon Ltd, an SME based in Stoke-on-Trent and the lead of a £18.1m Strength in Places Fund grant for advanced ceramics in the Midlands, and the Materials Processing Institute (MPI), a centre for innovation in Advanced Materials including ceramics and glass. All three industrial partners offer support in planning, carrying out and disseminating the results of our research proposal. In particular, Morgan Advanced Materials commit to assistance with the questionnaire and interview design, to ensure our questions are fit for purpose and provide initial input. The partners also offer opportunities for introduction to industrial partners, support through advice from their industrial perspective, and active participation in our advisory board for the project meetings, and the final workshop. They will also help in the dissemination of the final project output reports and be instrumental in scoping future activities which will stem from this project. Their support is valued in total at £27500.00 and represents a considerable vote of confidence in our proposed methodology and the purpose of our project.
Impact Disciplines involved in the project: Sustainable Systems Engineering, Materials Science & Engineering, Sustainable Supply Chain, Quantitative Social Science The ceramic and glass sectors are energy and carbon intensive and constitute a core part of the UK's supply chain for numerous important markets, putting in substantial strives to reduce CO2 emissions and improve resource efficiency. Next generation processing technologies (NGPTs), being new technologies that provide high energy efficiency and process intensification supported by transformative digital technologies, are touted as key decarbonisation enablers in both sectors, but there are adoption barriers to overcome. Through a critical literature review and thematic analysis of interviews and workshop data, sixteen (16) barriers were identified, broadly grouped into economic, organisational, external & regulatory, and operational & technological barriers. Interpretive structural modelling was adopted to deepen the understanding of the contextual interactions and interdependencies between the sixteen barriers, for targeted intervention options prioritisation, from the perspective of glass and ceramics stakeholders. Workforce availability and skills gap, high initial costs, prioritisation of short-term goals, operational complexity, lack of regulatory support and complexity of existing regulations, amongst other barriers were established to be dominant in the interplay between NGPTs adoption and net-zero transitioning. Integrated strategies, which tackles multiple barriers simultaneously revolve around a balanced approach, combining technological innovation with organisational change management, robust economic planning, and effective policy interventions.
Start Year 2023
 
Description University of Warwick- Overcoming Adoption Barriers of Next Generation Processing Technologies in Ceramic/Glass Industries 
Organisation University of Warwick
Department Warwick Manufacturing Group
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Taofeeq Ibn-Mohammed is from the University of Warwick. He was awarded £55,823 for the project 'Overcoming Adoption Barriers of Next Generation Processing Technologies in Ceramic/Glass Industries'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Taofeeq Ibn-Mohammed is the Principal Investigator on this small grant. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. The project has support from Morgan Advanced Materials, one of the world's leading ceramics producers, as well as Lucideon Ltd, an SME based in Stoke-on-Trent and the lead of a £18.1m Strength in Places Fund grant for advanced ceramics in the Midlands, and the Materials Processing Institute (MPI), a centre for innovation in Advanced Materials including ceramics and glass. All three industrial partners offer support in planning, carrying out and disseminating the results of our research proposal. In particular, Morgan Advanced Materials commit to assistance with the questionnaire and interview design, to ensure our questions are fit for purpose and provide initial input. The partners also offer opportunities for introduction to industrial partners, support through advice from their industrial perspective, and active participation in our advisory board for the project meetings, and the final workshop. They will also help in the dissemination of the final project output reports and be instrumental in scoping future activities which will stem from this project. Their support is valued in total at £27500.00 and represents a considerable vote of confidence in our proposed methodology and the purpose of our project.
Impact Disciplines involved in the project: Sustainable Systems Engineering, Materials Science & Engineering, Sustainable Supply Chain, Quantitative Social Science The ceramic and glass sectors are energy and carbon intensive and constitute a core part of the UK's supply chain for numerous important markets, putting in substantial strives to reduce CO2 emissions and improve resource efficiency. Next generation processing technologies (NGPTs), being new technologies that provide high energy efficiency and process intensification supported by transformative digital technologies, are touted as key decarbonisation enablers in both sectors, but there are adoption barriers to overcome. Through a critical literature review and thematic analysis of interviews and workshop data, sixteen (16) barriers were identified, broadly grouped into economic, organisational, external & regulatory, and operational & technological barriers. Interpretive structural modelling was adopted to deepen the understanding of the contextual interactions and interdependencies between the sixteen barriers, for targeted intervention options prioritisation, from the perspective of glass and ceramics stakeholders. Workforce availability and skills gap, high initial costs, prioritisation of short-term goals, operational complexity, lack of regulatory support and complexity of existing regulations, amongst other barriers were established to be dominant in the interplay between NGPTs adoption and net-zero transitioning. Integrated strategies, which tackles multiple barriers simultaneously revolve around a balanced approach, combining technological innovation with organisational change management, robust economic planning, and effective policy interventions.
Start Year 2023
 
Description University of Warwick- Using blast furnace waste heat to convert various wastes into new raw materials for low energy glass 
Organisation British Glass
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Zushu Li from the University of Warwick was awarded £55, 82 for the project 'Using blast furnace waste heat to convert various wastes into new raw materials for low energy glass'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application, which has industrial support from British Glass, Glass Futures, Materials Processing Institute and Calumite Ltd.
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Zushu Li from the University of Warwick is the Principal Investigator on this small grant, which took place at the Warwick Manufacturing Group. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. British Glass provided information and data on the requirements for products suitable for remelt back into new glass as well as interpretation and analysis of data. Glass Futures provided data on materials and glass manufacturing processes. Materials Processing Institute provided support on advice on practical issues related to the steel making process. Calumite Ltd. provided data on their raw materials and product specifications.
Impact The disciplines involved in the project include: energy, materials and the circular economy Energy-intensive industries such as glass manufacturing and steelmaking are facing significant challenges in reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions. A huge amount of heat during blast furnace (BF) hot metal and slag tapping dissipates into the atmosphere and has not been recovered/utilised as thermal energy (heat) in molten BF slag at the temperature up to 1500 °C. On the other hand, in glass manufacturing a significant amount of energy is consumed in raw material preparation and melting and a great portion of CO2 emissions is released from the decomposition of virgin raw materials (carbonates). This project aimed to develop an innovative process, i.e. to use the blast furnace waste heat to convert various wastes such as contaminated recycled glass streams to high value raw materials for glass industry to reduce energy/virgin raw materials consumption and CO2 emissions. The project outcomes included: 1. We determined how much wastes can be taken by the novel process and the impact of wastes on operational parameters such as melting temperature and viscometer. This was done by mass and heat balance modelling, and thermodynamic modelling, the study showed that up to 50 kg waste glass can be added to 100 kg molten blast furnace slag under potential operating conditions. 2. We have determined the dissolution mechanism of waste glass in the molten blast furnace slag using various techniques. The findings inform industry that under a potential industrial scenario (with strong stirring caused by injection) the dissolution of waste glass will not be a limiting factor. 3. The new raw materials made in laboratory high temperature melting experiments have been assessed using XFR, XRD and SEM-EDS. The new material with 30% waste glass addition contains 32.12% CaO, 47.58%SiO2, 5.84%MgO, 8.31%Al2O3, 0.56% K2O, 4.0% Na2O, 0.45% TiO2, and 0.28%Fe2O3, which is suitable as a raw material for glass manufacturing. Publications include: 1. "Conversion of hard-to-use industrial wastes to new raw materials for low energy glass manufacturing." Zhiming Yan, Theint Theint Htet and Zushu Li. 2. Abstract submitted to 8th International Conference on Materials Science and Smart Materials - Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ Symposium. 11th July 2022. Brunel University London and Online
Start Year 2021
 
Description University of Warwick- Using blast furnace waste heat to convert various wastes into new raw materials for low energy glass 
Organisation Materials Processing Institute
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Zushu Li from the University of Warwick was awarded £55, 82 for the project 'Using blast furnace waste heat to convert various wastes into new raw materials for low energy glass'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application, which has industrial support from British Glass, Glass Futures, Materials Processing Institute and Calumite Ltd.
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Zushu Li from the University of Warwick is the Principal Investigator on this small grant, which took place at the Warwick Manufacturing Group. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. British Glass provided information and data on the requirements for products suitable for remelt back into new glass as well as interpretation and analysis of data. Glass Futures provided data on materials and glass manufacturing processes. Materials Processing Institute provided support on advice on practical issues related to the steel making process. Calumite Ltd. provided data on their raw materials and product specifications.
Impact The disciplines involved in the project include: energy, materials and the circular economy Energy-intensive industries such as glass manufacturing and steelmaking are facing significant challenges in reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions. A huge amount of heat during blast furnace (BF) hot metal and slag tapping dissipates into the atmosphere and has not been recovered/utilised as thermal energy (heat) in molten BF slag at the temperature up to 1500 °C. On the other hand, in glass manufacturing a significant amount of energy is consumed in raw material preparation and melting and a great portion of CO2 emissions is released from the decomposition of virgin raw materials (carbonates). This project aimed to develop an innovative process, i.e. to use the blast furnace waste heat to convert various wastes such as contaminated recycled glass streams to high value raw materials for glass industry to reduce energy/virgin raw materials consumption and CO2 emissions. The project outcomes included: 1. We determined how much wastes can be taken by the novel process and the impact of wastes on operational parameters such as melting temperature and viscometer. This was done by mass and heat balance modelling, and thermodynamic modelling, the study showed that up to 50 kg waste glass can be added to 100 kg molten blast furnace slag under potential operating conditions. 2. We have determined the dissolution mechanism of waste glass in the molten blast furnace slag using various techniques. The findings inform industry that under a potential industrial scenario (with strong stirring caused by injection) the dissolution of waste glass will not be a limiting factor. 3. The new raw materials made in laboratory high temperature melting experiments have been assessed using XFR, XRD and SEM-EDS. The new material with 30% waste glass addition contains 32.12% CaO, 47.58%SiO2, 5.84%MgO, 8.31%Al2O3, 0.56% K2O, 4.0% Na2O, 0.45% TiO2, and 0.28%Fe2O3, which is suitable as a raw material for glass manufacturing. Publications include: 1. "Conversion of hard-to-use industrial wastes to new raw materials for low energy glass manufacturing." Zhiming Yan, Theint Theint Htet and Zushu Li. 2. Abstract submitted to 8th International Conference on Materials Science and Smart Materials - Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ Symposium. 11th July 2022. Brunel University London and Online
Start Year 2021
 
Description University of Warwick- Using blast furnace waste heat to convert various wastes into new raw materials for low energy glass 
Organisation University of Warwick
Department Warwick Manufacturing Group
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ is funding a series of small projects which aim to support research and innovation of benefit to the foundation industries. Dr. Zushu Li from the University of Warwick was awarded £55, 82 for the project 'Using blast furnace waste heat to convert various wastes into new raw materials for low energy glass'. My research team is not directly involved in the research, but we facilitated the application, which has industrial support from British Glass, Glass Futures, Materials Processing Institute and Calumite Ltd.
Collaborator Contribution Dr. Zushu Li from the University of Warwick is the Principal Investigator on this small grant, which took place at the Warwick Manufacturing Group. As such, all research outputs, impact, and follow-on activities are attributed to him. British Glass provided information and data on the requirements for products suitable for remelt back into new glass as well as interpretation and analysis of data. Glass Futures provided data on materials and glass manufacturing processes. Materials Processing Institute provided support on advice on practical issues related to the steel making process. Calumite Ltd. provided data on their raw materials and product specifications.
Impact The disciplines involved in the project include: energy, materials and the circular economy Energy-intensive industries such as glass manufacturing and steelmaking are facing significant challenges in reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions. A huge amount of heat during blast furnace (BF) hot metal and slag tapping dissipates into the atmosphere and has not been recovered/utilised as thermal energy (heat) in molten BF slag at the temperature up to 1500 °C. On the other hand, in glass manufacturing a significant amount of energy is consumed in raw material preparation and melting and a great portion of CO2 emissions is released from the decomposition of virgin raw materials (carbonates). This project aimed to develop an innovative process, i.e. to use the blast furnace waste heat to convert various wastes such as contaminated recycled glass streams to high value raw materials for glass industry to reduce energy/virgin raw materials consumption and CO2 emissions. The project outcomes included: 1. We determined how much wastes can be taken by the novel process and the impact of wastes on operational parameters such as melting temperature and viscometer. This was done by mass and heat balance modelling, and thermodynamic modelling, the study showed that up to 50 kg waste glass can be added to 100 kg molten blast furnace slag under potential operating conditions. 2. We have determined the dissolution mechanism of waste glass in the molten blast furnace slag using various techniques. The findings inform industry that under a potential industrial scenario (with strong stirring caused by injection) the dissolution of waste glass will not be a limiting factor. 3. The new raw materials made in laboratory high temperature melting experiments have been assessed using XFR, XRD and SEM-EDS. The new material with 30% waste glass addition contains 32.12% CaO, 47.58%SiO2, 5.84%MgO, 8.31%Al2O3, 0.56% K2O, 4.0% Na2O, 0.45% TiO2, and 0.28%Fe2O3, which is suitable as a raw material for glass manufacturing. Publications include: 1. "Conversion of hard-to-use industrial wastes to new raw materials for low energy glass manufacturing." Zhiming Yan, Theint Theint Htet and Zushu Li. 2. Abstract submitted to 8th International Conference on Materials Science and Smart Materials - Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ Symposium. 11th July 2022. Brunel University London and Online
Start Year 2021
 
Description 'Can digitalisation change the way we think about and use materials? 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Prof. Oan Todd gave a talk on 'Can digitalisation change the way we think about and use materials?' which attracted 64 registrations. This particular presentation was co-ordinated with Call 3 for small projects on a similar topic. This talk was part of the 'Blue Skies, greener future' webinar series
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://tfinetworkplus.org/catch-up-can-digitalisation-change-the-way-we-think-about-and-use-materia...
 
Description 'Enablers of Transformation' workshop, University of Leeds 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact 12th Oct 2022- 'Enablers of Transformation' workshop, University of Leeds. This workshop was a collaboration between TFIN+ and the Leeds University Business School exploring how Foundation Industries can effectively engage with policy makers and embed business models to enable transformation across sectors. For a real and sustainable transformation, it was important to consider the intangible organisational barriers and opportunities of such a process. Innovation and transformation of the Foundation Industries (FI) will require governance, business and operational models change which can only be achieved with involvement and support of the entire supply chain. Identification of intangible barriers, including end-users perceptions and needs, regulations, standardisation and policy, are key to transforming FI to meet the net-zero emissions targets. This in person event was held on 13th October and had 50 attendees. Information about the event can be found in https://business.leeds.ac.uk/faculty/events/event/837/enablers-of-transformation-workshop-for-foundation-industries
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description 8th International Conference on Material Science & Smart Materials "MSSM 2022" 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact 11-13 July 2022- TFI Network+ symposium as part of the 8th International Conference on Material Science & Smart Materials "MSSM 2022" organised by Prof Hussam Jouhara. Held in person at Brunel University London
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Blue Skies, Green Future Webinar: Dr Begoña Ferrari- COLLOIDAL PROCESSING: ROUTES TO SAVE ENERGY and RESOURCES 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact In materials science and technology, sintering challenges need an exhaustive control of previous processing steps. The most relevant advances on the colloidal processing shaping of ceramic, metallic, organic and carbonaceous materials are based on the innovations of the colloids design. From granulation to 3D printing, colloidal materials significantly broaden technical, functional and biomedical applications. Shaping from colloidal suspensions are predictable, and with their stable biphasic nature, inks/suspensions have tremendous potential to satisfy fabrication requirements, lowering energy costs and saving materials and human resources. The incursion of colloidal materials in the Additive Manufacturing (AM) enables materials assembly, prototyping and delivery across the multiple length scales required for multifunctionality. Rheological properties of the colloidal feedstock make predictable and tuneable the material micro- nanostructures, and hence the electrical, optical, biological and mechanical properties of the 3D parts.

Understanding the colloidal behaviour of particles (with any nature, shape and size) in liquid media is mandatory to prepare stable and disperse inks suitable in colloidal AM, as well as in massive processing technologies. In electrostatically stabilized suspensions, the morphology, the crystallography and the reactivity of the particles surface, determine the charge distribution, while the ionic strength modulates their absolute values, defining the complex fluid properties and particles assembly during solvent evaporation or elimination for granulation. But also, the particle surface modifiers, organic molecules or polymers, are effective tools to manage chemical stability or flocculation of particles and hence particles packing/ordering during shaping. Moreover, in materials processing, bioresources and biodegradable polymers have an increasing presence as substitutes of fossil-derived shape structurers. The use of biomaterials, i.e. the incorporation of PolyLacti acid (PLA) or celluloses, as rheological modifiers in the colloidal shaping technologies, reinforces the cero-carbon mfootprint and cero-waste feature of later sintering processes.

The design of the polymer matrix determines the shaping and printing parameters and final microstructures, widening the scope of processes used for fabrication. Inorganic charges close to 50 vol.% and an extremely uniform dispersion of particles within the matrix are key in the indirect shaping & printing of 100% metal/ceramic materials.
In this presentation, we will summarize strategies of surface modification understood as the absorption of cationic or anionic polymers or surfactants onto the particle surface, and the rheological control over the printing vehicles, or additives used to confer the structure to the 3D printed parts; since they determine the practical building up of tridimensional materials through colloidal AM, providing numerous possibilities for the fabrication of new constructs unobtainable usingtraditional methods.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Ceramics Expo linked to the Advanced Materials Show, Birmingham 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact 28th-29th June 2022, Ceramics Expo linked to the Advanced Materials Show, Birmingham. This was attended by Ian Reaney, Neil Lowrie and Deborah Froggatt for the purpose of networking, manning a stand and presenting on TFIN+ activities.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Clays in Construction: 2023 Clay Minerals Group Research-in-Progress meeting of the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact TFIN+ co-hosted the in person Clays in Construction: 2023 Clay Minerals Group Research-in-Progress meeting of the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland. A variety of speakers and presenters discussed recent advances in understanding the role of clay minerals in foundation industries and construction. The topic areas spanned from the role of clay minerals in geotechnics and heritage conservation, calcined clays in low-carbon cements, natural earth building, and much more. Selected contributions of this event will be invited for a special issue of Clay Mineral journal.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Decarbonising the cements sector, University of Zagreb 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact 1st June 2022, Workshop for decarbonising the cements sector, an event organised by the University of Zagreb (Croatia) attended by the main cement producers in Croatia as well as the president of the cement producers association of this country. This event was in person, attended by Prof. Susan Bernal Lopez showcasing the activities of the TFIN+ and findings of roadmaps analysis, with participation of colleagues from 5 different countries.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Designing alloys for resource efficiency webinar 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Over 60 people attended this webinar as part of the 'Blue Skies, Green Future' webinar series. This was a talk by Professor Mark Rainforth on 'designing allows for resource efficiency'. The webinar consisted of a 40 minute presentation and 20 minutes questions from the audience. Following the webinar, membership of the Network increased and attendees were invited to join future events. The audience was also asked for permission to be added to the Network mailing list to increase future engagement.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-vvg89kaZw&t=2949s
 
Description Early Career Researcher Net Zero Conference held in Manchester 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact 30th Nov - 1st Dec - TFI Network+ collaborated with 8 other research centres to deliver the first ever Early Career Researcher Net Zero Conference held in Manchester. The conference focused on skills development and networking for Early Career Researchers. Over 200 delegates attended the conference over two days. The other research centres included in the planning committee were UKCCSRC, CO2RE, IDRIC, C-DICE, Energy Revs, CREDS, UKERC and Energy Research Accelerator. Plans are being discussed for this to be a yearly event with thoughts around hosting and funding logistics to be considered further.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Energy efficient manufacturing for the Foundation Industries virtual workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact The topic of this workshop was 'Energy Efficient Manufacturing Within the Foundation Industries' and included 4 speakers from outside the Network and 2 breakout room sessions with discussion led by the Network management team. The workshop attracted over 60 attendees. The primary aim was to inform future Network activities and funding call themes based on discussion, encourage discussion between industry and academia, identify cross-sectional opportunities and encourage more members to the Network for further interaction.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5l6TDppm30
 
Description Engineering Development Trust Industrial Cadets Challenger Day, Swansea Uni Bay Campus 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact TFIN+ sponsored and co-organised the Engineering Development Trust Industrial Cadets Challenger Day, Swansea Uni Bay Campus. Local school pupils had the chance to learn about Sustainability and Manufacturing in South Wales at a workshop on Innovation and Sustainability, funded by Innovate UK. A total of 80 KS3 students from Llangatwg Community School, Bryn Celynnog School, Ebbw Fawr Learning Community, Olchfa School and Willows High School participated in this inaugural event. Pupils were joined by industrial representatives from Vale Europe and Tata Steel UK at the Challenger Day, which was also sponsored by the Transforming Foundation Industries Network+ and the SUSTAIN Future Steel Manufacturing Research Hub. The activities, developed by the Engineering Development Trust, introduced pupils to the foundation industries and manufacturing. Participants were given examples of what these industries produce and why they are so crucial in South Wales through a series of fun activities. Pupils built on their existing knowledge of fossil fuels and how they are impacting climate change through a series of true or false activities, and learned about several of the options local industries are considering to decarbonise their operations.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://youtu.be/LnIK1JMe9TA
 
Description Engineering Development Trust/Industrial Cadets Webinar 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact This webinar was a collaboration between the TFI Network+ and TransFIRe to showcase the work of the Engineering Development Trust and Industrial Cadets to encourage the audience to get involved in their activities to provide STEM opportunities for young people. The webinar consisted of 50 minutes presentation from the EDT/Industrial Cadets team and 10 minutes of wider discussion with the audience. The objectives were to introduce the work of the EDT/IC, engage with industry and academic audiences with volunteer and collaboration opportunities and discuss the next steps to get involved. The main outcome was further discussions with the Network to continue discussions on how to support STEM and outreach for young people.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co8fVcL5XYc&t=505s
 
Description ITM Power COP26 regional event exhibition 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact TFI Network+ had an exhibition stall at a regional ITM Power COP26 event held in October 2021. The event attracted over approx. 100 attendees. The Network raised awareness of our work, our opportunities for engagement and our research so far with aims to encourage more engagement with the Network and increase membership
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Industrial Decarbonisation Research & Innovation Centre Partners and Stakeholders Forum in Edinburgh 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact 6th-7th June 2022, Industrial Decarbonisation Research & Innovation Centre Partners and Stakeholders Forum in Edinburgh, attended by Neil Lowrie and Deborah Froggatt for the purpose of networking. This was a useful event to meet researchers, in particular those working in the social sciences field
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Industrial Symbiosis for Skills Alliance webinar 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact This webinar was part of our monthly 'Blue Skies, Green Future' webinar series. This session was a presentation by Antonius Schroder on the topic 'Industrial Symbiosis for Skills Alliance' which presented the SPIRE-SAIS research as a blueprint for supporting skills development. Over 30 attendees signed in to the webinar which consisted of 40 minute presentation and 20 minute question and answers. The main outcomes were to spark discussion and reflection among the audience and encourage further engagement with the Network.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEcTKZTxc-c&t=2s
 
Description Joint in person event with the UK chapter of the American Ceramics Society 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact 27th July- Joint in person event with the UK chapter of the American Ceramics Society: 'New Ceramics Technologies for the move to Net Zero', hosted by Lucideon in Stoke on Trent
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Keynote lecture for the Portuguese ceramics industry: Towards Net Zero 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact 13th April 2022. Keynote lecture at workshop run by Ian Reaney for the Portuguese ceramics industry: Towards Net Zero. I gave a 1h presentation to audience of Portuguese ceramics industry, raising the awareness and dicussing the path to net zero. I answered questions and gave advice on best practice and tried to encourage the establishment of a Network in this area.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Launch of the Henry Royce Discovery Centre (Sheffield) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact 20th April 2022. The launch of the Henry Royce Discovery Centre (Sheffield) was attended by Neil Lowrie, with a stand, for the purpose of networking.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Linkedin profile 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact The Network launched a Linkedin profile in March 2021 following the virtual launch event. Currently the account has over 600 followers and regularly features news from the Network and relevant organisations, Network events and others of relevance and funding opportunities. Since launch, our LinkedIn feed has generated over 31,000 views
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021,2022,2023
URL https://www.linkedin.com/company/tfinetworkplus/
 
Description MSSM 2023, Italy 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The TFIN+ sponsored a ceramics symposium at the 9th International Conference on Materials Science & Smart Materials, MSSM 2023, Italy. TFIN+ provided 15 tickets for delegates to attend either in person or online, including 12 ECRs. The event featured speakers from industry and academia, speaking on the topic of the sustainable manufacturing of ceramics. The event attracted 50, in person and on-line, including five ceramics companies
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Materials Research Exchange 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact TFIN+ Manager Neil Lowrie attended a knowledge exchange workshop at University of Arts London on 11th November. The purpose was to look for opportunities to interact with the arts & humanities. Discussions may lead to site visits to foundation industry manufacturing sites for the purpose of knowledge exchange
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Metals Expo 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The TFIN+, jointly with the Sustain Hub, had a stand at the Metals Expo, Birmingham NEC, 14-15 Sept 2022. The TFIN+ was represented by Prof. Cameron Pleydell-Pearce and Deborah Froggatt. Prof. Pleydell-Pearce took part in a panel discussion to highlight the importance of the metals industry interacting with other foundation industries, and reflected on the successes of the TFI Challenge. There was also discussion on the critical next steps that UKRI needs to take, focusing on skills to deliver the right technologies. There was also discussion on the current business environment, and what is required to enable businesses to invest. The event was very well attended and there were many visitors to the stand. We were able to make new connections to companies involved with the rare earth metals and lithium. It also allowed us to highlight future TFIN+ events and opportunities to visitors
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Next generation and intelligent processes for the Foundation Industries virtual workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact This workshop presented and discussed the next generation and intelligent processes which could impact and benefit the Foundation Industries including data centric engineering, new methods to acquire and analyse data, artificial intelligence and digital twin. The workshop consisted of four 20minute presentations from academics across UK institutions and two 10minute question and answer session including all speakers. The workshop attracted over 50 attendees. The objectives were to engage the community on the topic of digitalisation to raise awareness of the upcoming funding call and to foster collaborative relationships between audience members. The main outcome was the utilisation of discussions to shape the theme of the latest TFI Network+ funding call.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWp2TeZsOg8&t=1s
 
Description Post-doctoral researchers funding for small projects virtual workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact This workshop was for Early Career Researchers to raise awareness of the open TFI Network+ ECR funding call and to outline the application process and further support. The Network was keen to attract further ECR applications to the funding call and to encourage further interaction between ECRs and the Network. The Network consisted of presentations from the Network+ management team, Innovate UK, TransFIRe hub and a short discussion session with the audience. The main outcome was increasing the Network membership with a longer term outcome aim to be an increase in ECR application to the ECR open funding call.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Prof. Julian Allwood, University of Cambridge, The bulk materials in 2050 with Absolute Zero emissions 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact 25th May 2022, Prof. Julian Allwood, University of Cambridge, The bulk materials in 2050 with Absolute Zero emissions, which attracted 194 registrations.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Prof. Justin Perry, Northumbria University, Which Future for Chemicals? 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact 20th April 2022, Prof. Justin Perry, Northumbria University, Which Future for Chemicals?, which attracted 51 registrations. This particular presentation was aimed at better engagement with the chemicals sector of the FIs.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://tfinetworkplus.org/webinar-catch-up-which-future-for-the-chemicals-sector/
 
Description Realistic Approaches to Reducing CO2 Emissions in Cement and Concrete webinar 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact This webinar was part of our monthly 'Blue Skies, Green Future' webinar series. This session was a presentation by Professor Karen Scrivener on the topic 'Realistic Approaches to Reducing CO2 Emissions in Cement and Concrete'. Over 150 attendees signed in to the webinar which consisted of 40 minute presentation and 20 minute question and answers. The main outcomes were to spark discussion and reflection among the audience and encourage further engagement with the Network. The webinar showcased the latest research in the Cements sectors and informed the audience of research and future plans.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aXnSkDaTjA
 
Description Regular monthly newsletter 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact TFI Network+ launched a monthly newsletter in March 2021 following our virtual launch event. This newsletter is distributed on the last working day of each month and is distributed to all members and subscribers to the newsletter (Note: you do not have to be a member of the network to subscribe to the newsletter). Currently there are over 850contacts on the mailing list. Each newsletter consists of the latest news from the Network, funding opportunities, news from the Foundation Industry sectors or relevant bodies, TFI Network+ events and external relevant events.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2011,2021,2022,2023
 
Description Roadmapping for the foundation industries virtual workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Over 100 attendees from across the Foundation Industries and academia attended this workshop to discuss pre-existing roadmaps within the sectors and address challenges, barriers, commonalities and opportunities within the roadmaps. The discussion was used to guide future topics for webinars, workshops and funding calls to better align with the sectors needs. The workshop resulted in more members to the Network and a increased interaction between audience and Network.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i20FbwFZGKg
 
Description Sensors, Controls and Digitalisation workshop with KTN 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact This workshop was hosted in collaboration with the KTN and was part of a series of 3 mini-conferences hosted by the Network, TransFIRe hub and KTN (each held one event). The workshop included 6 presentations and an overview of the Network from the Director. Over 50 people signed in to the virtual workshop. Each presentation was 15 minutes with time for a Q+A session after each presentation and at the end of the workshop. The outcomes were to raise awareness of the Network, hub and KTN, share collaboration opportunities and encourage further interaction with the Network on an upcoming related call and events.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKs4Na38jJo&t=1s
 
Description TFI Showcase and House of Lords reception 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact 23rd June 2022, TFI Showcase and House of Lords reception, organised by the KTN, attended by Ian Reaney, Neil Lowrie and Deborah Froggatt for the purpose of networking. There was a stand manned by Neil Lowrie and Ian Reaney during the day and the evening reception was attended by Ian Reaney and Deborah Froggatt. The event was an opportunity to network with organisations involved in the TFI Challenge
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description TFIN+ Christmas conference 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The conference was preceded by extensive advertising on LinkedIn to promote invited speakers and small project investigators. In addition, IOM3 and QinetiQ offered to sponsor prizes of £250 each, which helped create additional advertising for the conference. DeakinBio manufactured the biosintered plaques (the technology being in part developed by a TIFN+ small project) and prizes were presented to Dr. Peter Green for 'best TFIN+ project' and Dr. Xinyuan Ke for 'best ECR TFIN+ project'
Guest speakers included:
• Prof. Julian Allwood, University of Cambridge
• Dr Lorraine Ferris, Henry Royce Institute
• Dr. Alastair Sanderson, Unilever
• Lord Rupert Redesdale, member of the House of Lords

The second day of the conference concluded with a panel discussion led by Prof. Cameron Pleydell-Pearce, discussing the successes of the Transforming Foundation Industries challenge, and gathering ideas for what could be part of the next phase of activities. The panel included Jarrod Hart (Imerys), Dr. Graham Hillier (Foundation Industries Sustainability Consortium), Dr. Lucy Smith (MPI), and Dr. Sarah Connolly (Innovate UK).

A particular highlight of the conference was the session presented by Profs. Rachel van Duyvenbode and Amanda-Crawley-Jackson (above), who presented the results of the EDI project uplift and invited the MD of Pilkington Glass, MD Heidelberg Materials, and Director of Operations Johnson Tiles, to the stage to discuss the impact of the EDI project on themselves, their employees and their companies. It was clear from the Q&A that the audience were very engaged with the topic and were impressed to see how this initiative was starting to impact how these companies were considering the diversity of their employees.
Overall, feedback from the audience and participants suggested strong support for continuing activities with a focus on the Foundation Industries, with many considering that the identity of the 'Foundation Industries' has now been established and that continued support for multi-sector initiatives in the area are required to maintain the momentum that has been generated.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://tfinetworkplus.org/tfin-christmas-conference-presentations/
 
Description TFIN+ website 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The TFIN+ website regularly features news and updates, and also acts as the small project submission portal. Since launch in Feb 2021 the website has had >34,000 views from visitors all over the world.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021,2022,2023,2024
URL http://www.tfinetworkplus.org
 
Description The Role of CCS in Transforming Foundation Industries 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact 28th June 2022, The Role of CCS in Transforming Foundation Industries - This webinar was co-hosted by TFI Network+ as part of a regular series run by UKCCSRC. The webinar was led by Dr Kyra Sedransk-Campbell and included presentations and a panel session. Speakers included Bruce Adderley (UKRI), Paul Fennell (Imperial College London) and James Watt (WSP). Discussions focussed on carbon capture and storage in the Foundation Industries and both the UKCCSRC and TFI Network+ community was invited. Promotions for the event were made across both organisations' channels.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description The role of CCS in Transforming the Foundation Industries' 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact 28th June 2022, Webinar co-hosted by TFI Network+ as part of a regular webinar series hosted by UK Carbon Capture and Research Storage Centre (UKCCSRC) titled 'The role of CCS in Transforming the Foundation Industries' which attracted 55 registrations
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022,2023
 
Description Transfire Hub forum in Leeds 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact TFIN+ co-sponsored the Transfire Hub forum in Leeds. Prof. Reaney gave a presentation highlighting some of the key outputs of the TFIN+, with the TFIN+ having a stand at the event to facilitate wider networking
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Transforming Foundation Industries Forum 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact 11th - 13th May 2022: Transforming Foundation Industries Forum, jointly organised by the TFIN+ and the TransFIRe hub. This was our first major event, organised in collaboration with the TransFIRE hub, to showcase ongoing activities related to the hub's work themes; ongoing strategy related to EDI; and the results of TFIN+ funded small projects. The final day was an opportunity for delegates to examine and discuss challenges and future opportunities. The decision to run the Forum as an online event was made in late 2021, when the risk of a Covid induced lockdown was increasing. Professional facilitators were hired to plan and assist with the running of the event to maximise interaction between the delegates.

Registration was run by both TFI Network+ and TransFIRe through their respective registration systems. TFI Network+ utilised Eventbrite as has been used for all previous TFI Network+ ran events. As of writing, data from TransFIRe is unavailable. TFI Network+ Eventbrite listing event attracted 118 registrations. Of those registered, 68 were academic, 30 were from industry and 20 listed 'other' as their background. 69% of those registered were male, 25% were female (6% did not disclose their gender identity).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Twitter account 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact The Network Twitter account was launched in March 2021 following the virtual launch event. Currently there are over 350 followers and we regularly share news from the Network, relevant news and updates from sectors and relevant organisations, upcoming TFI Network+ events and events from the sector. Since launch, the Twitter feed has generated over 38,000 impressions
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021,2022,2023
URL https://twitter.com/TFINetworkplus
 
Description UK Chapter of American Ceramics Research Society meeting 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The UK Chapter of ACERS and the Transforming Foundation Industries Network Plus co-organised a one-day meeting in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Sheffield on 'Inorganic Materials for Resource and Energy Efficiency'. The symposium focused on materials for sustainable technologies and also considered resource and energy efficient manufacturing methods for commercial ceramics. The meeting provided an excellent platform to promote knowledge exchange and collaboration in the ceramics community. The emphasis was on resource and energy efficiency which was addressed in areas ranging from low temperature ceramic processing to improved thermal barrier coatings for more efficient jet engines. The meeting formed part of a yearly sequence of ceramic meetings that will continue in 2024 to help the ceramics industry and community create innovative solutions toward net zero carbon emission.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Virtual launch event 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact The network held a virtual launch event on the 15th February 2021 aimed at academic and industry audience to launch the Network and raise awareness of the work the Network will be undertaking. The event included presentations from the Network management team and from leading industry bodies within each of the Foundation Industry sectors. The objectives were to raise awareness of the Network, with the main outcome generating traffic to the Network+ website and increasing membership
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64TZFZ3S-Z8
 
Description Workshop aimed at Early Career Researchers 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact 23rd May 2022. As a result of the first ECR-focused workshop, which took place in March 2022, we saw a significant increase in ECR applications to Call 3 (20 applications compared to 7 in total for Call 1 and Call 2 combined). We therefore decided to run a second workshop to promote the second call for small projects amongst ECRs (fourth call overall for the Network). The event was run jointly with the Future Leaders Group of the Transforming Foundation Industries challenge and attracted over 30 ECRs. Speakers included Dr. Sarah Connolly from Innovate UK to give an overview of the challenge and Dr. Xinyuan Ke (University of Bath) to present on the Transforming Foundation Industries Future Leaders Group. Prof. Vera Trappmann (University of Leeds) gave a short presentation on the importance of the social sciences to the TFI challenge.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Workshop exploring equality, diversity and inclusion in the Foundation Industries 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The TFIN+ teamed up with Inclusioneering to deliver this workshop exploring equality, diversity and inclusion in the Foundation Industries. Our speakers established what EDI meant for the sectors and showcased individual and industry perspectives and success stories to encourage an industry-wide discussion about greater diversity and inclusion. There was an opportunity to interact with our speakers via a Q&A/panel discussion following the talks. The event attracted 88 registrations of whom 55 were women, 33 were men. 68% identified as from industry or other, and 32% were from academia.

Speakers included: Gary Ford, an independent consultant working across the IT sector and the wider management environment; Professor Sue Black, a multi award winning Computer Scientist, Technology Evangelist and Digital Skills Expert; Myrtle Dawes, a Solution Centre Director at the Net Zero Technology Centre where she leads the development of technology for net zero in the energy sector; Lisa Nicholas, who is on a mission to use her lived-experience of over 20 years as one of the "the onlys" in manufacturing and engineering to help others to succeed in these industries; Dr Kyra Sedransk Campbell, a Senior Lecturer and Royal Society - EPSRC Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellow in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Sheffield and the co-founder of Nanomox; and Jeffrey Fox who worked in teaching and management in Further and Higher Education in the Midlands and Northwest for 25 years before a pivot into the third sector and then into technical ceramics as Partnership Development Manager for AMRICC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lucideon.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
URL https://tfinetworkplus.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/EDI-workshop-final-report-1.pdf
 
Description Workshop on Decarbonisation and Energy Efficiency in the ceramics Industry, Aveiro, Portugal 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact 17-18th Nov, Workshop on Decarbonisation and Energy Efficiency in the ceramics Industry, Aveiro, Portugal. Workshop was attended by Portuguese Academic and industrialists and concerned the wider issues of resource and energy efficiency in ceramic manufacturing. IMR gave a keynote lecture and was part of the discussion panel
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description cold sintering of functional materials webinar 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Webinar on the topic 'cold sintering of functional materials' presented by Professor Clive Randall as part of the TFI Network+ Blue Skies, Green Future webinar series. Over 80 attendees signed in to the webinar, which consisted of a 40 minute presentation and 20 minute question and answer. This webinar sparked discussion among the audience and some members of the audience then became members of the Network to engage further.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFcQ_yY34mg&t=1s
 
Description non-traditional technology for the concrete sector webinar 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact Over 100 people attended a virtual webinar which was the first in the regular 'Blue Skies, Green Future' series launched by TFI Network+. The topic was 'non-traditional technology for the concrete sector' presented by Professor John Provis and the audience was invited to ask questions after the main presentation. The session was organised to spark discussion and innovation among the audience and to attract new members to the Network.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S56_MLIroU4
 
Description resource efficiency and circular economy in the Foundation Industries virtual workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact The theme of this workshop was 'resource efficiency and circular economy in the Foundation Industries'. There were 4 speakers from industry and academia who discussed the challenges, opportunities, innovation and technology influencing the Foundation Industries. This workshop included 2 breakout sessions led by the Network+ management team (with involvement from the event speakers) which facilitated discussion among the attendees. The workshop helped to inform the themes and focus areas of future funding calls, and encourage further attendee interaction with the audience. The workshop also facilitated interactions between sectors for potential future collaboration.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bVmN7yMqtA&t=493s
 
Description supply chain resource sustainability and decision science webinar 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Industry/Business
Results and Impact This webinar was presented by Professor Lenny Koh on the topic 'supply chain resource sustainability and decision science'. The webinar attracted over 60 attendees and included a 40 minute presentation and 20 minutes of questions from the audience. The talk focused on the advances in multi-scale decision science for a resource sustainable supply chain. The objectives of the webinar were to encourage further consideration for the funding call (open during the webinar) and encourage further interaction with the Network from the audience.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Bu2sMrcdRY
 
Description sustainable ceramics manufacturing virtual workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact TFI Network+ hosted a virtual workshop in collaboration with the UK Chapter of the American Ceramics Society (UKACERS) on the theme 'sustainable ceramics manufacturing'. The workshop included 5 presentations from academia and industry and attracted over 50 attendees. The main objective was to spark discussion on the latest ceramics research and raise awareness of the Network to relevant partner organisations.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=835f501Ik8c