Neighbouring Tinsley sites will look at potential sustainability projects including capturing waste heat from water treatment works and carbon capture trials.
Yorkshire Water and E.ON are exploring ways to boost sustainable energy options in Sheffield via Blackburn Meadows wastewater treatment works and the nearby renewable energy plant.
The two companies have signed a memorandum of understanding to look at energy efficiency measures and reduce carbon emissions from their respective sites – capturing heat from the wastewater treatment works and carbon emissions from the biomass power station.
One potential project is the capture of ‘waste’ heat from the final stages of the wastewater treatment process at Yorkshire Water’s Blackburn Meadows site, providing a low or zero carbon source of heating for E.ON’s Lower Don Valley district heating network. In this, large heat pumps would recover heat from the final effluent, potentially providing enough heat for the equivalent of about 40,000 homes.
Partnering the two sites would support E.ON’s plans for a multi-million-pound investment to double its Lower Don Valley heat network, with the Yorkshire Water plant already earmarked as a possible customer and heat provider into the network.
Heat networks are a more efficient and more cost-effective way of providing heat to built-up areas by producing and distributing heat from a central source instead of individual boilers in each property.
Nicola Shaw, Yorkshire Water CEO, said: “There’s a really good opportunity for us to work with E.ON to get the best out of both sites. It’s such a beneficial partnership for Sheffield.
“It helps us because E.ON are creating heat which goes into a district heat network and we can also work together on how we supply Sheffield and the way we work with our underground networks across the city, taking out disruption from people’s everyday lives. It’s an exciting way to help the city go green and to work together to make people’s lives better.”
Simon Duncan, E.ON Energy Infrastructure Solutions, said, “We need to find new, cleaner ways of heating our homes and businesses, and heat networks like ours in the Lower Don Valley allow us to do just that. We’re the playmakers in creating a more sustainable UK through projects like this around the country, and with Sheffield’s bold steps to become a zero-carbon city by 2030 we’re looking to expand the route of our district heat network to play a role in that ambition.
Other options under consideration include a direct connection for electricity and heat from the Blackburn Meadows biomass plant to cut carbon emissions and enhance energy efficiency at Yorkshire Water’s neighbouring site. The collaboration will also consider building a carbon capture and storage plant at the wastewater treatment site, to capture carbon emissions from the biomass plant and reduce greenhouse gases.
The companies will also work together on potential proposals for decarbonising the energy needs of other Yorkshire Water operations in the area.
E.ON is working on the UK’s first in-sewer waste-water heat recovery system and an energy centre at Horiba MIRA’s technology park in Warwickshire, serving as a pivotal testbed. Using an in-sewer heat capture solution similar to a system in Germany, it can placed near to where the heat is needed, reducing the additional infrastructure needed and helping to cut unnecessary costs.
