A collaboration between the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) and Tata Steel, the Thermal Technologies Centre opened for business this week in Middlesbrough.

Based at Tata Steel’s Teesside Technology Centre, the £5m centre provides an open access facility which will pioneer new ways of turning materials such as biomass into high grade fuels and energy.

The facility, which is unique in the UK and one of only a few in the world, provides world-leading expertise, assets and capabilities to enable thermal processing businesses to innovate new products and processes. It brings together the thermal processing skills of Tata Steel and the technology innovation capability of CPI.

The new centre strengthens the UK’s international competitiveness in developing products and processes for the process, energy, construction and materials, metallurgical and recycling and reclamation sectors.

The Thermal Technologies Centre currently offers two demonstration-scale assets: a multi-mode gasifier and a batch pyrolyser. These enable the processing of biomass or other alternative feedstocks, plus end-of-use materials, to produce energy and low-carbon fuels. These demonstration-scale assets are supported by laboratory-scale facilities, as well as a comprehensive analytical capability.