Notice

IETF Phase 3, Spring 2024: competition winners

Updated 28 May 2025

Applies to England, Northern Ireland and Wales

Project ID 31041 – British Sugar

IETF grant offered: £7,500,000
Project costs: £36,848,064
Location: Wissington. Norfolk
Energy efficiency deployment: Steam drying at Wissington site

British Sugar’s 4 manufacturing sites across the East of England and East Midlands, are on an established decarbonisation journey which has reduced Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 21% since 2017/2018.

Wissington, the largest of our factories, processes over 3 million tonnes of sugar beet every year into approximately 400,000 tonnes of sugar and many co-products that are derived from the sugar production process. This process, by nature, requires large amounts of heat and energy, and after decades of operational efficiency improvements, there is little room for further significant carbon reduction measures without major investment.

As a result, and further to a £17 million investment in a new evaporator commissioned at Wissington in Autumn 2023, this steam drying project will see investment in a major new dryer for the factory. Together these 2 projects at Wissington represent a reduction of 80,000 tonnes of Scope 1 emissions, that’s a significant 25% reduction.

At present, the site has 3 gas dryers that take the beet pulp, once the sugar has been extracted, and dry it, turning it into an animal feed product which is then sold into the agricultural industry. The investment will convert the gas dryers to steam, taking steam directly from the combined heat and power plant on site and using it to dry the pulp, reducing site Scope 1 emissions by 50,000 tonnes per annum.

Undertaking this type of technology change in the dryers, will future-proof the site to allow conversion to a lower carbon fuel input or a high-temperature heat pump, as and when future technologies become available at scale.

The project will bring about natural gas savings of around 193,000 MWh/year at Wissington alone. As with many other carbon reduction initiatives, the application of technology could be mirrored at other British Sugar sites, to enable further Scope 1 emissions to be taken out of the process, should investment allow.

Phil McNaughton, Head of Decarbonisation, British Sugar, said:

This project would not be possible without significant investment from the government through the IETF Fund. It marks another step-change in our decarbonisation journey at British Sugar Wissington. To be able to remove 50k/t of Scope 1 emissions per annum from our site, marks a significant milestone for us and brings us further to our goal of being a net zero operation. We look forward to working together with the government in the future to utilise new technologies and continue decarbonising our operations.

Project ID 31071 – Futamura Chemical UK Ltd

IETF grant offered: £ 4,486,851
Project costs: £ 14,956,170
Location: Wigton, Cumbria
Energy efficiency deployment:  Waste gas to energy project

Futamura, based in Wigton, Cumbria, for over 90 years, manufactures flexible packaging films that are derived from ethically sourced, certified sustainable wood-pulp. This is a long established but energy intensive process that reduced in scale globally with the advent of plastics from the 1970s onwards. Due to Futamura’s in-house R&D, the company has significantly updated the material’s environmental and packaging attributes such that it now presents itself as an exciting renewable and sustainable alternative to finite, fossil-derived flexible plastics.

Its production process involves chemically breaking down the Woodpulp into a liquid form (Viscose), before regenerating it back into a transparent film. This process predominantly requires steam, and to a lesser extent electricity, to operate.

A significant challenge the company faces both financially and environmentally is how it reduces the amount of Natural Gas purchased from the grid to create the required steam and electricity.

This project, underpinned by the IETF grant, involves capturing and utilising the sulphurous waste gases from its production process. The company will use a sulphur oxidation process (SOP) to burn the gases together with molten sulphur (itself a bi-product or waste product from petro-chemical industries). This creates a high purity sulphuric acid to be used on site, as well as a significant amount of heat that it will utilise to create steam.

The steam generated by the SOP will substitute that which is currently generated from natural gas for its manufacturing processes, reducing the company’s overall natural gas consumption by 16%.

The SOP is performed by a wet gas sulphuric acid plant (WSA). At TRL9, it is a well established process that has been used by other industries for many years. The company identified a project partner which has considerable experience and expertise, as evidenced by a visit to a similar working installation and discussions there with the customer.

Adrian Cave, Managing Director, Futamura Chemical UK, said:

I don’t think in my career, there has been a project that I have been more excited about! At Futamura we are passionate about our NatureFlex and Cellophane products, and that includes ensuring we continually evolve and utilise greener manufacturing processes, to further reduce our environmental footprint. Transformational projects such as this WSA installation invariably are expensive and have a medium to long term payback. Companies like ours do require support financially and this IETF energy efficiency grant has resulted in this project coming to fruition. We are very grateful for this support.

Project ID 31039 – J. Suttle Transport Limited

IETF grant offered: £851,129
Project costs: £1,215,899
Location: Swanage, Dorset
Energy efficiency deployment: Swanworth Quarry Decarbonisation

Suttle Stone Quarries has operated as a family-owned business for decades, supplying quality stone and aggregate products to Dorset and beyond. It has 2 main quarrying operations in the Isle of Purbeck as well as a stone and recycling depot in Poole. Its limestone aggregate quarry, Swanworth Quarry, is a key contributor to the region, supplying approximately 50% of Dorset’s aggregate for building materials and providing vital rock armour for national coastal defence projects. Alongside this, California Quarry in Swanage continues to produce Purbeck stone for hand-crafted, bespoke items.

While the industry has traditionally relied heavily on diesel and hydraulic plant, Suttle has long recognised the importance of reducing its environmental impact. Over recent years, the company has made steady progress toward lowering its carbon footprint through various initiatives including installing solar panels and changing a lot of its fleet of vans and cars to electric alternatives. Although the company has made great progress so far, it has further ambitions to reduce the impact of its operations further.

At Swanworth Quarry, the process of crushing and screening limestone to produce high-quality aggregate products currently relies on 2 separate pieces of plant powered by a combination of diesel, electric and hydraulic equipment. Understanding the environmental impact this process poses, Suttle has been looking to move away from diesel and hydraulic power to focus entirely on fully electric alternatives. 

Being part of this IETF grant funding has meant that its now able to move forward with installing a brand-new, fully integrated processing plant. Replacing the individual separate screening and crushing plant, this new innovative system combines the two separate processes into one streamlined piece of plant powered entirely by electricity. This upgrade had previously been unfeasible due to the prohibitively high capital costs involved. However, with the support that the IETF grant funding provides it is now possible. With this new investment, the company will see an annual CO2 reduction of nearly 130t CO2 equivalent from diesel fuel removal.

This IETF grant comes at an ideal time for the company, following the recent opening of its quarry extension to Swanworth Quarry, which has extended the life of the site for a further 25 years. By making the investment and implementing this sustainable technology now, Suttle can ensure long-term environmental benefits both immediately and through the quarry’s future operations. The company remains committed to combining high-quality, reliable stone with responsible, forward-thinking environmental practices.

Simon Clabburn, Director of Quarrying for J. Suttle Transport Ltd, said:

A win win situation with the IETF funding unlocking greenhouse gas reduction, which couldn’t have been achieved without this grant support.