Translational Energy
With demand outstripping current capacity
the need for the Translational Energy Research Centre is clear.
In 2012, The University of Sheffield, with support from the BEIS and EPSRC, founded the Pilot Advanced-Scale Capture Technology (PACT) Facilities. PACT is an open access national centre of excellence for experimental research on Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage, advanced power generation fossil fuels, biomass and hydrogen.
PACT has facilitated more than 70 industrial collaborations, booked over 500 test days and supported over 30 research and training projects but demand for the facility has outstripped capacity.
The Translational Energy Research Centre builds on the success PACT and provides the opportunity to:
expand the existing experimental research facilities for carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) – including CO2 utilisation, hydrogen CCS, bioenergy with CCS and CCS suitable for application in energy-from-waste plants
offer larger scale facilities to research areas that have significant growth potential
enhance capacity, flexibility and increased collaboration space – especially for SMEs
expand on PACT’s capabilities to support the long term sustainability of the centre and offset the risk of any individual research area rapidly growing or shrinking
offer a higher specification building with superior infrastructure, that would also be more in keeping with UK national facility status
Ultimately, the new centre enables a large number of pilot-scale energy test rigs to be located on one fully integrated new site. It offers the ability to flexibly locate the research equipment and provides additional space for visiting research equipment enabling potential users to test their new products.
The centre is funded by £10 million from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), £7 million from the UK government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and £4m from the PACT National Facilities and the University of Sheffield. Building began in January 2020, and was completed in November 2020. Currently, the installation of bespoke specialist infrastructure is taking place, to be completed by March 2021, with the centre set to become operational in June 2021.
For more information about the Translational Energy Research Centre, you can download the brochure here.
The centre will integrate its equipment, systems and analytical and control services into
a versatile and flexible ‘smart energy management’ system.
Get in touch: terc@sheffield.ac.uk