- The University of Sheffield's Energy Innovation Centre (EIC) has kicked off a three-month pilot project with Suiso, a Sheffield-based cleantech startup, to test its innovative gas decarbonisation technology.
- Technology can be integrated with existing natural gas supplies, giving the potential to enable factories, hospitals and other sectors that rely on natural gas to significantly cut their carbon emissions
- If successful, this technology could offer a practical and cost-effective way for thousands of businesses to meet the UK's environmental targets and reduce the carbon footprint of their furnaces, boilers, ovens and kilns.
The University of Sheffield has partnered with local startup Suiso on a three-month pilot study to demonstrate its innovative gas decarbonisation technology.
The project, at the University's Energy Innovation Centre, will research and develop Suiso's breakthrough pyrolysis technology which removes carbon from commonly-used fuels - natural gas, LPG, propane and biogas - before they are burned, with the potential to reduce or ultimately eliminate their CO2 emissions.
As this technology can be integrated with an existing natural gas supply, this groundbreaking study has the potential to enable factories, hospitals and other sectors that rely on natural gas to significantly cut their carbon emissions cost-effectively and without the need to replace their current systems.
In the three-month trial, Suiso will remove CO2 from natural gas blends in the form of a solid carbon powder, which has the potential to be used in water treatment, air purification and batteries. Researchers will then compare how the EIC's pilot-scale furnace performs with this zero-carbon fuel compared to conventional gas.
The trial is particularly exciting for South Yorkshire's many foundries, which rely heavily on gas furnaces and kilns that are difficult to decarbonise, and for SMEs, who produce around half of the UK's CO2 emissions but struggle to find affordable ways to reduce their carbon footprint.
