The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) and Tata Steel signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish a new national High Temperature Innovation Center (HTIC) at Tata Steel’s Teesside Technology Center (TTC) in the U.K. Under the MoU, CPI will create an open-access innovation and research facility centered around two new pilot plants to be installed on the TTC site. The new plants will extend the existing capabilities of the site to carry out research and development work in the fields of novel sources of fuel and energy, the recovery of raw materials and reductions in the amounts of organic wastes produced.

Equipment to be installed includes a 350-kg pyrolysis oven and a 2-meter-diameter fully flexible gassifier. These facilities will be supported with access to Tata Steel’s existing high-temperature process knowledge and experience, which will in turn be integrated with CPI’s knowledge of the process industries, to provide a “one-stop shop” for high-temperature technology and process development.