This project brings together partners from glass (Glass Futures, Encirc, Calumite, Glass Technology Services, Diageo), steel (British Steel, the Materials Processing Institute, Tata Steel) and cement (LKAB Minerals, Hanson) sectors to develop a novel process to combine waste-materials into blast furnace slag to 'up-grade' low-quality materials into an enhanced Ground-Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBS), increasing the volume of GGBS available for the cement and glass sectors, whilst creating a new value-added product enabling increased percentages to be used in glass-manufacturing. GGBS, sold into the glass sector as 'Calumite', is widely used in container-glass manufacture, displacing silica-sand and limestone, reducing process CO2 emissions, increasing melting rate and reducing furnace energy. Calumite also provides sulphides which refine the molten glass, increasing product quality. In the cement industry, GGBS partially substitutes Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC). OPC is made in a high-temperature, energy-intensive process from limestone and other raw materials, thus GGBS offers a significant reduction in energy and CO2 emissions. The project will utilise pilot scale equipment at Glass Futures and the Materials Processing Institute to develop and optimise this new technology, before undertaking a series of industrial-scale trials at British Steel and various glass manufacturing plants, including Encirc. Large-scale feasibility studies will also be undertaken by LKAB to assess the suitability of these new materials for use in cement applications. The project will engage the paper and ceramics sectors to identify waste-streams that could be utilised in the e-GGBS process and explore ceramics applications which might benefit from e-GGBS.

The Foundation Industries (FIs) metals, glass, ceramics, cement, chemicals, and paper are vital to the UK manufacturing and construction sectors. Approximately 75% of the materials we see around us have been made by one of these six industries and moving towards 2050, we need to rapidly address the challenges brought about by climate change, and the need for long-term sustainability of these industries in the UK. Innovation is key to achieving this aim. The UK FIs are less innovative than in other competitive countries; over a third of businesses have not introduced new innovation in the last three years; smaller businesses are less likely to be innovative than larger companies; and there is hesitancy around innovation adoption. To support the UK in its journey to become a Science and Technology Superpower by 2030, the Foundation Industries Ventures (FIVe) Science and Innovation Network (S&IN) will unite innovators, startups, industry, investors, and universities from across the FIs to tackle the individual and cross-cutting regulatory barriers. The network will accelerate innovation pathways by developing regulatory science that supports decision making for Deeptech innovation and scaleup, for technology readiness level 1-9\. FIVe SN&I will focus on Collaboration, Education, and Communication to: * Build a network of relevant stakeholders, by working with established groups (FISC, TFINetwork+, and TransFIRe) thereby delivering regulatory science to accelerate innovation pathways. * Discover the necessary training required to up-skill the innovation value chain and deliver that required training while continuing to develop a firm foothold as a trusted delivery partner. * Communicate the findings of its research with the wider community through the existing FIve platform and become the go-to, trusted network to influence policy through innovator-informed evidence. Discover Phase deliverables: * Sandpits and online workshops for data discovery. * Reports and Thought Pieces to disseminate findings to a wide audience. * A tactical review of the regulatory landscape, conducted by ANION. * The proposal for the FIVe S&IN Implementation Phase. In the Implementation Phase, the FIVe S&IN will become the go-to, trusted partner to support the acceleration of innovation across the FIs in the UK and to influence the UK government and future regulation. It will deliver cross-cutting solutions and influence policy through innovator-informed evidence, and act as the "intelligence front door" for FI innovators to navigate the complex regulatory landscape. This enhances business capacity to exploit commercial opportunities and enables the UK to become the most innovative economy in the world.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

COREu will demonstrate key enabling technologies in a CCS value chain and support the development of three new CCS routes in Central-East Europe (CEE), helping accelerate CCS development . COREu will (a) provide the means for development of an open-access, trans-national network (infrastructure and logistic) to connect emitters with storage sites in Europe, by identifying multimodal transport requirements, and developing emitters’ clusters to create the demand and the investment rationale, (b) increase the knowledge of the CCS value chain across Europe through interconnected initiatives, sharing of experience, knowledge and data to create a common framework that encompasses all key aspects of CCS deployment: technological know-how, business models, consensus management, monitoring, reporting and validation, policy framework, transport and storage safety. COREU will contribute to 6.8Mt/year in CO2 reduction by 2035 and 36Mt/year by 2050, develop 8 innovations for Measurement Monitoring Verification, interoperability and Value Chain Monitoring, and improve the Internal Rate of Return of CO2 infrastructure investment by 6% through de-risking core technologies.

Glass is a reusable and recyclable material for windows and a reusable and recyclable alternative to plastic for containers. Sustainable glass is manufactured by melting sand in exceptionally large (the size of a low-rise block of flats), high temperature furnaces. However, the manufacturing process is very inefficient and up to 50% of the energy supplied for melting is lost as waste in the process. India produces ~10MT glass/year and is growing at between 6-10% CAGR. The Indian government has made ambitious targets around climate change, including reducing the emissions intensity of GDP by 33%--35% by 2030 below 2005 levels. This project with a duration of 5 months aims to develop close ties and relationships with counterparts in India in the area of glass manufacturing and research, and produce collaborative proposals between research centres in the UK and in India.