The Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge has supported the UK’s six largest industrial clusters to decarbonise at scale through the development of low carbon technologies and infrastructure, increased industry competitiveness and collaboration and contributed to the UK’s clean growth.
Together with UK industrial partners, the Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge has exceeded its initial aims and laid the foundation for developing at least four low carbon industrial clusters by 2030 and the world’s first net zero industrial cluster by 2040.
See a short YouTube animation presenting background and achievements of the Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge
The UK’s industrial clusters are groups of co-located energy intensive organisations which are of key importance to the local economies of their regions, supporting jobs and communities, and to the UK economy as whole.
The Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge was designed to support the UK’s drive for clean growth by enabling key industrial clusters to decarbonise at scale. These clusters are located in:
- Humber
- Teesside
- North West
- Scotland
- South Wales
- Black Country
The challenge has provided £210 million, matched by £261 million from industry, which has been invested into developing technologies such as carbon capture and storage (CCS) and hydrogen fuel switching. The technologies are being deployed and scaled up within the UK’s largest industrial clusters.
The challenge was delivered in two stages via three workstreams:
- deployment: projects have designed the infrastructure required for CCS and hydrogen production at full commercial scale
- cluster plans: projects produced plans to reach net zero in each of the industrial cluster regions
- Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC): a dedicated research centre that has brought together academia, industry and government to support technology development for the transition to net zero
The deployment, cluster plans and IDRIC workstreams operated on a collaborative basis through knowledge-sharing, industry engagement and collective leadership.
Deployment projects
The £172 million deployment investment has enabled significant progress towards reductions in industrial carbon dioxide emissions in industrial clusters.
The deployment projects have provided detailed designs and demonstration of industry-scale technologies and shared infrastructure for the cost-effective deep decarbonisation of industrial clusters.
Nine deployment projects were awarded funding in the ‘Decarbonisation of industrial clusters phase 2: deployment’ competition, including:
- HyNet– Hydrogen and CCUS (onshore)
- HyNet – Hydrogen and CCUS (offshore)
- Humber Zero
- Scotland’s Net Zero Infrastructure (onshore)
- Scotland’s Net Zero Infrastructure (offshore)
- South Wales Industrial Cluster
- Northern Endurance Partnership
- Net Zero Teesside
- Zero Carbon Humber
See the deployment project videos on YouTube:
- Hynet– Hydrogen and CCUS
- Humber Zero
- Scotland’s Net Zero Infrastructure
- South Wales Industrial Cluster
- Northern Endurance Partnership
- Net Zero Teesside
- Zero Carbon Humber
Cluster plans
The £8 million cluster plans investment has delivered plans and feasibility studies to achieve net zero in each industrial cluster. This has ensured that the UK is able to meet UK government ambition of four decarbonised clusters by 2030 and at least one net zero industrial cluster by 2040.
Six cluster plan projects were funded in the ‘Decarbonisation of industrial clusters: cluster plan’ competition:
- Humber Industrial Cluster Plan
- Net Zero North West Cluster Plan
- South Wales Industrial Cluster
- Scottish Net Zero Roadmap
- Repowering the Black Country
- Tees Valley Cluster Plan (PDF, 6.1 MB)
Case study: Decarbonisation projects in industrial areas
See the Innovate UK project videos on YouTube:
- Humber Industrial Cluster
- North West Cluster
- South Wales Cluster
- Scotland Cluster
- Black Country Cluster
- Tees Valley Cluster
The Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge has built on these cluster plans to produce a UK-wide cluster plan: ‘Enabling net zero: a plan for UK industrial cluster decarbonisation’.
This plan sets out the next steps for how the UK can harness the power of its industrial clusters to support its net zero ambitions and drive the next phase of emissions reductions, while contributing to a stronger economy, energy security, greater innovation, and community vitality.
Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC)
IDRIC works with academia, industry, government and other stakeholders to deliver multidisciplinary research and innovation to support the decarbonisation of the UK’s industrial clusters. The programme funded 100 research projects in cross-cutting areas of technology, policy, economics and regulation.
Find outputs from the centre, including journals, webinars, reports and policy briefs through the IDRIC Knowledge Hub.
IDRIC has secured additional funding to continue its works beyond the end of funding for the Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge.