UK could be at forefront of green Industrial Revolution with carbon cluster plans – and here’s why
If you crack open a bottle of something – be it wine, water or soft drinks – over the festive season, there’s a good chance the glass came from the Encirc factory in Cheshire.
Here, on the banks of the River Mersey, you will find one of the world’s largest glass factories. They take sand from Norfolk, soda ash created from the salt sitting beneath the Cheshire countryside and a lot of recycled glass and throw it into two of the biggest glass furnaces in the world.
There, in the furnace, at temperatures of around 1,600 degrees centigrade, the sand melts and becomes a liquid river of molten glass. It is a chemical reaction humans learnt thousands of years ago, but here at Encirc it’s carried out on a gargantuan scale.
This factory alone produces two billion bottles and containers a year, a number which is hard to process, until you note that it includes around 40% of all the wine bottles consumed in the UK.
That includes a significant proportion of all the New World wines we consume here, by the way. Mostly, the wine from Australia, California and Chile arrives not pre-bottled, but in large bags inside shipping containers, which are then emptied into metal vats at Encirc, from where they are pumped into bottles made here in the UK.
It’s an extraordinary site – a place which says a lot both about our appetite for liquids (both alcoholic and not) and our ability to turn raw materials into sophisticated products.
The struggle to get to net zero
But turning sand into glass is an enormously energy intensive process. Some of the heat in the furnace can be created by electric elements which heat the bottom of this enormous oven. But glassmakers like Encirc say it’s impossible to do what they do – making glass on a vast scale – without blasting that furnace with a very hot flame.
At the moment that flame is produced using methane – natural gas – with the upshot that this glassmaking facility produces rather a lot of carbon dioxide. And even if you could find a way of running their furnace without a naked flame it would still be producing a sizeable amount of CO2, since some of it derives from the chemical reaction as sand turns into glass.
In short, this glass factory is a pretty good illustration of how tricky it is to get to net zero. Much of the energy use in this country can be shifted from fossil fuels to green electricity – whether that’s vehicles or home heating. Sometimes the cost will be high; sometimes in the long run, going green will be cheaper than the status quo.
But for a handful of important industries it’s far, far harder. Glassmaking is one of those industries. You can run small furnaces on electric power but not the big ones you need to feed a massive glass container factory like this one.
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All of which is why they are seeking another alternative. The most obvious route to allow this plant to decarbonise is to replace those methane flames with hydrogen ones, and then to collect all the CO2 coming out of the chimney and sequester it below the ground.
And, as it happens, the technology is pretty much there. We know how to make hydrogen both from natural gas and from electricity (the former still involves some carbon emissions; the latter is extremely expensive, so these options are not without their issues). We know how to capture carbon dioxide.
But there’s a couple of problems which have always deterred businesses like this from taking the leap. The first is that it hasn’t made any economic sense. Capturing carbon is expensive, so why do it when it’s cheaper to pay for carbon credits and carry on burning gas?
Location, location, location
The second is that the infrastructure isn’t yet there. Right now if you collected carbon dioxide from your chimney, there’s nowhere to put it. Someone needs to lay the pipes out to the depleted gas reservoirs under the sea where we might be able to store it. That’s also expensive.
All of which brings us to one of the least discussed, but arguably most important topics in the green energy transition: clusters. In short, if businesses like this glassmaker are going to green it is far more likely to happen if they can do so alongside other heavy industry players.
Look at the geography of the UK’s industries and the idea makes quite a lot of sense. Many of the country’s biggest polluters happen to be clustered relatively near each other on the coast. Alongside Encirc you’ll find one of the country’s biggest oil refineries, as well as the Inovyn (part of Ineos) chemicals plant, not to mention a major gas power station and, some miles further away in North Wales, a cement manufacturer.
All of these businesses have big energy demands. They would all benefit either from carbon capture or hydrogen. Squint a little bit into the future and you can envisage a world where they share pipes both taking the carbon away and delivering the hydrogen.
How to make it happen?
But how to create these clusters? How to finance them? How to coordinate the businesses that all want to make profits while fulfilling their commitments to reduce or eliminate their carbon emissions?
It’s a question no one has yet been able satisfactorily to answer, but whoever does will have that most precious of things: a blueprint about how to decarbonise the trickiest bit of the world’s carbon budget.
And guess what: it so happens the UK is further ahead of most other countries around the world in planning its blueprint for clusters. It now has detailed plans for how to fund, construct and run a series of major clusters: one around the Encirc factory (the Net Zero North West Cluster Plan), another in the Tees Valley (Tees Valley Net Zero), as well as plans for Scotland, for the Humber, for the Black Country and South Wales.
An area where the UK is genuinely leading
Thanks in part to government funding, which began in 2019, Britain’s clusters expertise is admired far and wide. While the US is widely seen as having taken the lead on industrial decarbonisation, thanks to its enormous Inflation Reduction Act set of subsidies, Americans – and many from Europe – have been regularly visiting the UK to understand how to do clusters.
There are many areas where UK politicians claim (without much basis) to be world leaders, but here is an area where it does actually have a world-beating proficiency. However, the government funding for clusters is coming to an end in March, and those working here are nervous that this could be another area where the country squanders an early lead and soon becomes a laggard.
While the cluster in Cheshire looks likely to become a physical reality, with companies soon laying the pipes that will connect plans to hydrogen and carbon dioxide pipes, those in the Black Country and elsewhere are much less advanced.
It’s something to ponder as you have a drink over the festive season. It’s tempting to assume that Britain no longer makes much of anything any more. However, visit plants like the Encirc one, and you realise that that is very far off the mark.
And there’s a prospect that this country, which brought the world the Industrial Revolution, could be at the forefront of managing the green Industrial Revolution. In a few years’ time that glass could be truly low carbon – maybe in due course it could be zero carbon. But it will take a lot more work – especially on clusters – to make it a reality.
“It makes me sad. We left when our country had the troubles so we should have in this world… the humanity”.
We’re sitting in a cafe in Tamworth and Noor, 19, is explaining how it feels to know there are people in the town who don’t want him here.
Noor is from Afghanistan and came to the UK on a small boat.
The cafe is close to the asylum hotel where he’s staying.
The group met in a cafe in Tamworth
He’s agreed to come along with four other men from the hotel to speak to locals about the concern in the town over the Staffordshire hotel being used to house asylum seekers.
There was a peaceful demonstration outside the hotel last month. But last year, a protest here turned ugly. Windows were smashed, petrol bombs thrown, and part of the hotel was set alight.
Among the locals in the cafe is Tom, 25, who reveals he was at both protests.
Tom (left) has attended anti-migration protests in Tamworth
He says he was persuaded to go by friends and explains to the group why they decided to go.
“They were annoyed, angry, fuming that the government had let them [asylum seekers] live in a hotel,” he says.
Noor, who speaks the best English of the asylum seekers in the group, replies: “What did we do wrong?”
Noor says he is upset by people who do not want him in the UK
“Your government accepts us as asylum seekers,” he continues.
Tom thinks. “I’m more annoyed with the government than you guys,” he tells them.
‘A place to get the golden ticket’
Noor explains to the group how he ended up in the UK. He left Afghanistan four years ago with his family but they were separated on the journey. He doesn’t know where they are.
Heather, a 29-year-old local accountant, speaks up.
Heather says protests outside hotels makes asylum seekers fearful
“When people protest, I’m like, why don’t you protest near the government?” she asks. “Why don’t you take your issue to them rather than being outside the hotel?”
“Those asylum seekers aren’t going to change the policy at all,” she adds. “It’s just going to make them fearful.”
Each of the locals in the cafe has their own take on why some don’t like the asylum seekers living in their town.
“I think they feel like they’re living better than the British people, some of them, and it’s almost like they feel offended,” says Andrew, 47.
“Some people in the UK see how the asylum seekers are coming over to Britain because they see it as a place to get the golden ticket,” he adds.
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UK’s unprecedented immigration figures
Heather agrees. She says the NHS is a draw and the UK also has “different border control regulations that might be seen as weaker than in some other countries”.
“You get to stay in a hotel,” she tells the asylum seekers. “You get the free health care. And so I think that’s why they’re a little bit annoyed.”
Noor replies: “One thing I should tell you is that when we cross the English Channel, it means we don’t care about our life. It’s very dangerous.”
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Noor and four other asylum seekers joined the meeting
Links to the UK
I’m keen to know why they chose to come to Britain. Noor tells the group it’s because he has a relative here and speaks the language.
Azim, 22, who is also from Afghanistan, says he came here because people in the UK “have respect to Islam”.
He also has a family member here.
Azim says people in the UK are respectful of Islam
I ask them if they could have claimed asylum in France, but Noor says his “only hope was England”.
He says it’s “better for education” here. All the men agree it’s seen as the better place to come.
The conversation moves to the protests this summer which began in Epping, Essex, after an asylum seeker there was charged with sexually assaulting a schoolgirl – an offence he has now been convicted of.
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In full: The Immigration Debate
Noor believes British people have a right to be angry about that. He tells the group he believes that asylum seekers who commit crimes “should get back to their country”.
“We also [do] not support them,” he says.
Over the course of the meeting, the mood becomes more relaxed. People with different views find some common ground.
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Immigration Debate audience have their say
Noor tells the group that if things improve in Afghanistan he would like to go back there one day.
If not, he hopes he’ll stay in the UK and earn enough to repay in taxes the bill for the hotel he’s staying in now.
It has been a frank exchange. Some in this town will never want asylum seekers here and people like Noor and Azim know it.
But they were placed here by the Home Office and can only wait until their asylum claims are processed.
UK
‘They’re in conditions you can’t even imagine’: Son of UK couple held in Iran renews plea for their release
“Mum is teaching yoga and English to her cellmates in Iranian prison.”
It’s now over eight months since British couple Lindsay and Craig Foreman were detained in Iran.
Last week, during a long-awaited visit from British ambassador Hugo Shorter, it was confirmed that the pair continue to endure tough conditions with no indication of how – or when – the legal process will proceed.
“They’re both coping, making the best of a bad situation. They’re in conditions you can’t even imagine.”
Lindsay Foreman with son Joe Bennett. Pic: Family handout
Speaking to Sky News, their son Joe Bennett explained how the couple have been crammed into cells with more than 50 other prisoners, while suffering constant back pain caused by metal bunk beds.
“The beds are stacked three high. It’s unsanitary. It’s hot. There are often power outages and they’re in 50-degree heat.”
Craig and Lindsay Foreman. Pic: Family handout
Lindsay and Craig, both 52, were arrested in early January in Iran, as they crossed the country on motorbikes as part of an around-the-world adventure. The couple had left Spain just a few weeks earlier and were aiming to drive all the way to Australia.
They were charged with espionage and have been transferred to various prisons around Iran, with little information provided to British diplomatic staff about their whereabouts.
Joe and the rest of the family have only managed to speak to their parents once on the phone. “In a brief conversation that I had with my mum, we managed to share a laugh and a lot of tears as well. But it’s a test of time, how long they can keep this up for.”
Pic: Family handout
The UK ambassador’s meeting with Craig was the first in over four months, and despite suffering from untreated dental pain, he quipped about becoming a “reluctant Arsenal supporter” while watching football on television with other prisoners.
The couple were previously held together in a facility in the Iranian city of Kerman but have been moved to separate prisons in the capital, Tehran. Family members are calling on the Iranians to move Lindsay into the same facility where Craig is being detained.
Pic: Family handout
Their son acknowledged in his interview with Sky News that he was frustrated with his parents when they were arrested in January. Family members had urged them not to travel through the country.
“I had that natural reaction that some of the public do – why did they go? It’s idiotic, you’re going against the advice, and it serves them right. That’s fair enough when you don’t know them [but] just picture your parents having a bit of a sense of adventure… it’s a different story.”
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office says it is “deeply concerned” about the couple, adding, “we continue to raise this case directly with the Iranian authorities”.
Members of the Foreman family are urging the British government and the new foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, to take direct action to improve harsh prison conditions and urgently organise for Lindsay and Craig’s release.
“I need them home, you know, and I need them home as soon as possible. We need them, the family miss them dearly – so we’re going to do everything we can to make that possible.”
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