With our global community consuming more energy than ever before, the demand for energy is rising. But this increasing demand is occurring at a time when climate change and the use of fossil fuels is a growing concern.
The Joint Research Platform will combine academic expertise with industrial capability to deliver new approaches to energy and waste management with the beneficiaries being cities and communities. It will address the practical challenges that sit at the heart of the energy waste nexus, applying academic insight to accelerate innovation to the market place.
Over 100 UK and international leaders from industry and academia attended the launch event to discuss a collective ambition to drive innovation to make Birmingham the green heart of Britain.
The collaboration will initially focus on the new Thermo-Catalytic Reforming (TCR®) technology, developed by Professor Andreas Hornung, Chair in Bioenergy at the University of Birmingham, and Director of the Institute Branch, Sulzbach-Rosenberg, Fraunhofer UMSICHT. The demonstrator for TCR® is based at Tyseley Energy Park in the city of Birmingham - a central hub for Energy Innovation as part of the Energy Capital vision for the West Midlands.
In the future, the collaboration will look to progress a chain of commercial-scale thermo-catalytic reforming plants around the city of Birmingham. This concept has been called the ‘Thermal Belt‘. If developed, the technology will have the potential to transform the way that we think about waste and energy, and start providing a solution to the growing demand for clean energy and fuels on a global scale.
Contact:
Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Andreas Hornung
Director Institute Branch Sulzbach-Rosenberg
Phone: +49 9661 908-403
E-Mail: andreas.hornung(at)umsicht.fraunhofer.de
