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.
An abusive boyfriend whose girlfriend blamed him for her death in a suicide note – after he subjected her to years of violence – has been jailed for six-and-a-half years for controlling and coercive behaviour and assault.
Ryan Wellings, 30, was found guilty of the offences but was cleared of Kiena Dawes’s manslaughter by a jury at Preston Crown Court on Monday.
He was the first defendant in England to face trial for the unlawful killing of his partner after her suicide following domestic violence.
Shortly after Ms Dawes wrote her note on her phone, in which she described Wellings as a “monster”, the 23-year-old hairdresser left it with a friend before she took her own life on 22 July 2022.
Prosecuting, Paul Greaney KC cited the suicide note at Wellings’s trial. In it, Ms Dawes said he had “killed [her]”.
“He ruined every bit of strength I had left,” the note said. “I had dreams. I had a future at one point. That was taken away from me.”
Ryan Wellings. Pic: Lancashire Police
Wellings denied the allegations against him and told jurors “I’m not a monster”.
While a jury cleared Wellings of Kiena’s manslaughter, Mr Greaney invited the court to sentence the defendant “on the basis that [the offending of which he was convicted] formed the background to and set the scene for her death”.
He said the abuse was “both regular and routine across the relationship”.
On one occasion, the court heard the defendant “held a drill to Kiena’s face, switched the drill on and threatened to drill out her teeth”.
‘Breaks my heart’
In a personal statement read out on her behalf in court, Angela Dawes, Kiena’s mother, said: “It breaks my heart that [Kiena’s] beautiful baby doesn’t have her mummy here because of that monster.”
“I truly hope that no other young lady or child has to go through what he did to my daughter and her baby,” she added.
Kiena Dawes took her own life. Pic: Lancashire Police
Kiena’s grandmother, Irene Ball, said she had noticed at times during Kiena’s relationship with Wellings that her smile was “false” but recalled her granddaughter “tried to reassure [her]”.
“It was extremely shocking to see my granddaughter hurt and with injuries to her beautiful face,” she said.
“I told Kiena that he would really badly hurt her one day and I pleaded with her not to go back to him.”
Kynan Dawes, Kiena’s brother, said: “I introduced Kiena to this monster and I will regret that for the rest of my life.”
Mr Dawes said he felt “justice [had] been served” as “the world now knows what a monster he is”.
Addressing those who’d been following Kiena’s case online, he added: “I want people to see that domestic violence is not OK and men should respect their partners.”
He also urged anyone experiencing domestic violence to “go to the police”, adding “if you don’t feel like you can do this, speak to family or friends”.
‘Friendly and kind young woman’
In sentencing, Judge Robert Altham said Ms Dawes was “a popular, vivacious, friendly and kind young woman”.
“She pleaded with you to stop hitting her, but you just carried on. You tried to persuade her that it was her fault for upsetting you,” he added.
Ms Dawes had attempted suicide in the past, before her relationship with Wellings, and lawyers for Wellings told the court her death was because of “multiple factors”.
The judge said the defendant was aware of Ms Dawes’s history of mental health issues, he “called her names connected with her illness” and “repeatedly told her that she may as well kill herself”.
However, he said his sentence was based on the jury’s conclusion that the defendant had “no criminal responsibility” for Kiena’s death.
In mitigation, John Jones KC told the court the relationship between Ms Dawes and Wellings, a landscape gardener from Bispham who had a previous conviction for battering an ex-partner, was “inconsistent” throughout its two-and-a-half years.
“It would be wrong to say that that coercive relationship was in existence throughout,” he said.
The court heard the abuse of Ms Dawes included regular slapping and “ragging” by her hair, and threats to use a drill to take out her teeth and throw acid in her face.
After she became pregnant, Wellings gave her a black eye and began criticising her weight, calling her “fat” while contacting escorts and prostitutes online.
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Police were called more than once, but Wellings threatened Ms Dawes that their daughter would be taken from them if she told them what was happening, so she declined to help prosecute him.
But she did report Wellings following an attack which left her needing hospital treatment and he was arrested.
He broke his bail conditions but was not locked up, leaving Ms Dawes feeling let down by police. Four days later, she killed herself.
Wellings’ sentences, to run consecutively, were for controlling or coercive behaviour in an intimate relationship and for assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
A further count of assault on the defendant’s former friend Scott Fletcher was also included as part of the sentence, an offence to which he had previously pleaded guilty.
Wellings will serve half of the sentence in prison before he is released on licence.
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.
The teenager who stabbed 15-year-old Elianne Andam to death in a row over a teddy bear has been found guilty of murder.
Hassan Sentamu, 18, attacked Elianne with a kitchen knife in “white-hot anger at having been disrespected” after she stood up for his ex-girlfriend, the Old Bailey heard.
He had been due to return items including a teddy bear to Elianne’s friend following their break-up but instead came armed, wearing two pairs of gloves and a facemask.
Elianne collapsed outside the Whitgift Centre in central Croydon, south London, after being stabbed four times in what police described as a “frenzied” attack, which was caught on CCTV, on 27 September 2023.
Sentamu was arrested within 90 minutes. Pic: Met Police
Her friend compared Sentamu to a character from the Netflix crime drama Top Boy and said Elianne had her hand out begging him to “stop”.
He threw his gloves and mask in a bin and hid the knife in a garden but was arrested within 90 minutes after police stopped a bus near his home in New Addington.
Sentamu, who was 17 at the time, admitted manslaughter but denied murder on the basis of “loss of control” because he has autism.
There were sobs in the public as he was found guilty by a majority verdict of 10 to two, while he stood propping himself up with both arms in the dock and crying.
He was also found guilty on a charge of having a blade. Sentamu had also denied this charge – claiming he had a lawful reason for carrying it.
Grime artist Stormzy was among thousands of mourners who gathered at a candlelit vigil after Elianne – who went to the private Old Palace of John Whitgift School – was killed, and there is now a memorial to her at the scene.
Stormzy among mourners. Pic: PA
‘I’ll do it again’
The month after Elianne’s death, Sentamu got into a row with a fellow inmate in youth custody and when he was accused of killing girls, said: “I’ll do it again,” the court heard.
“I’ll do it to your mum,” he said. “Do you want to end up like her, six feet under? I’ll do the same again.”
Sentamu, who came to the UK aged five with his mother and three sisters, had a history of violent and aggressive behaviour, as well as making repeated threats to take his own life.
He was given a police caution after pulling a knife out in class and telling a teacher he wanted to kill himself when he was just 12 years old.
Sentamu was expelled from one school after threatening another child with a knife and in other incidents put girls in headlocks and threatened to stab a student with a pair of scissors.
While in foster care he threatened to harm a cat or chop off its tail, the court heard.
Elianne with her friends. Pic: Met Police/PA
‘I can’t let this slide’
Weeks before he killed Elianne, who wanted to become a human rights lawyer, Sentamu said: “The real me is evil, dark and miserable” in a message to a friend.
The day before the attack, he had met Elianne and her friend, who had recently split up with him, at the Whitgift Centre, where the girls “teased” him and his ex-girlfriend splashed him with water.
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Attack caught on CCTV
Sentamu, who was studying sports science at Croydon College, later sent what police called a “chilling” message to a friend saying: “I can’t let this slide bro.”
He met Elianne, his ex-girlfriend and another of their friends the following day to swap belongings.
The girl handed him a plastic bag of his clothes, but he did not have her teddy bear as arranged, and Eliane snatched the bag back.
Pics: Met Police
Sentamu stabbed Elianne with a kitchen knife. Pic: Met Police/PA
A Snapchat video shows Elianne smiling and laughing before her expression turned to “abject terror,” jurors were told.
Sentamu pulled the kitchen knife from his trousers and repeatedly stabbed her, plunging the blade 12cm into her neck.
‘He exacted vengeance on a girl running away’
Prosecutor Alex Chalk KC earlier told jurors Sentamu was “angry… having brooded on the insult and he took the knife to the scene to reassert dominance”.
“He exacted vengeance on a young girl clearly running away from him and posing no threat,” he said.
Sentamu, who was diagnosed with autism in 2020, did not give evidence.
His barrister Pavlos Panayi KC said it was not disputed the killing was a “grotesque overreaction” but the “central issue” in the case was Sentamu’s autism history and symptoms.
Metropolitan Police Detective Chief Inspector Becky Woodsford said it was a “violent, aggressive and frenzied knife attack on a young girl”.
“Elianne was doing what was right, she was standing up for her friend,” she added.
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