Tata Steel plan innovation centre on Corus site

Nov 4 2010 by Mike Hughes, Evening Gazette

TATA Steel is planning a major innovation centre on Teesside.

Tata and the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a High Temperature Innovation Centre.

Under the deal, CPI - a national centre offering technology expertise - will create a research facility centred on two new pilot plants to be installed at Tata’s Teesside Technology Centre on the Corus site.

The new plants will extend the existing capabilities of the site to carry out research and development work in the fields of novel sources of fuel and energy, the recovery of raw materials and reductions in the amounts of organic wastes produced.

Half the money for the £5m project has come from One North East through the Tees Valley Industrial Programme, which is helping to accelerate industrial transition in the area and help the region to seize new and emerging opportunities in low carbon and advanced manufacturing.

This project builds on CPI’s role as a technology innovation centre for the process industries by adding specialist high temperature facilities to its existing assets and services that serve the industrial biotechnology, sustainable processes and printable electronics industries.

The Department for Business, UK Trade & Investment and One North East have been working closely with the two partners for several months on the HTIC Project. A team from CPI and Tata has collaborated on the detail of the proposal as well as on the supporting business model, which One North East approved last month.

Business Minister Mark Prisk said: “This project is a good example of a traditional manufacturing industry working with innovative partners to develop new greener products and processes. The Department for Business and UK Trade & Investment have actively supported this project as part of our commitment to promote private sector led growth by investing in a low carbon economy.”