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MSc in Clean Technology at Newcastle

The MSc in Clean Technology at Newcastle is 'carbon negative'. Students save local industry 377 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. The MSc in Clean Technology at Newcastle puts students into industry locally, as part of their course, where they carry out environmental projects aimed at waste, water and energy reduction.

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Newcastle has also launched its first 'carbon neutral' degree course, a two-year MSc in biodiversity, conservation and ecotourism.

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Clean technology projects

Bakery

The student was asked to reduce waste on site. Examples of her recommendation included:

• Changes to the shape of production lines to avoid tight bends and hence pies flying off the conveyor belt.
• Reducing the size of spray nozzles to avoid over spray on sugar coated buns.
• Energy savings through improvement in oven logistics.

Potato crisp manufacturer

• Effluent plant improvement.
• Segregation and resale of grey sludge saved £20,000 in disposal costs and generated £78,000 revenue.
• Better oil management during frying saved £26,000 in skimming fat from effluent.

Silica processor

• Water/effluent Disposal costs of £200,000 pa.
• Water minimisation project.
• Found hoses left on all day.
• 10 tonnes water were used at weekend, (why!).
• Metering and trigger hoses saved £13,000 with pay back on capital equipment costs of 8 months.

Sweets manufacturer

• Steam reduction and metering programme carried out.
• Saved £23,000 on Energy, 2,000 tonnes water, 400 tonnes CO2.

Processed cheese maker

• Current contractor was charging for emptying empty skips and charging other customers less.
• Recycling schemes set up for paper, cardboard, batteries, toner cartridges, (saved £2,000).
• Composter to be set up for food waste thus saving £14,000 pa.

Vinyl wall coverings manufacturer

• Use of solvents a big issues- no management plan, (required).
• Reclamation company sending back poor quality product.
• On site reclamation could save £114,000.
• Diversion of 60 tones of solvent from incineration and disposal of 16,000 used rags though on site cleaning.
• Return of hazardous waste containers to suppliers.

Manufacturer of ready to use bathroom pods

• Segregation of waste and use of baler for plastic packaging which is then recycled.
• Training of workforce.
• Found existing scrap man was illegal.
• Saved 20% of annual waste disposal cost.

Printed circuit board manufacturer

• Currently spend £200,000 pa on water/effluent disposal.
• Looked at water minimisation and reuse on one product line, found savings of £3,000- if rolled out to other lines £30,000 pa.
• Potential annual savings on 260,000 cubic metres on water and thus effluent disposal.

Fruit juice processor

• Water minimisation study saved 15% of water usage, (and diverted 33,00 cubic meters of water from sewer).
• Highlighted need to ensure appropriate water for the each task, (don't need membrane filtered water for all tasks).
• Reuse of clean water for cleaning floors.
• Use of some effluent for golf course irrigation.
• Potential savings of 40% on water/effluent disposal.

Wallpaper Manufacturer

• Most waste is dry paper but with high PVC content so cannot be recycled.
• Changed cutting processes to reduce waste at source.
• Resale of seconds.
• Recycling of packaging.
• Diverted 173 tonnes waste from landfill (25%).
• Saved £100,000.