They had tough competition in this category; but the judges were particularly impressed by the team’s resilience and determination. Despite being a small group that faced a number of challenges along the way, they demonstrated real commitment and perseverance in bringing their product to market. The judges praised the innovation and uniqueness of the idea, as well as the team’s strong focus on sustainability—not only in the product itself, but throughout the supply chain.

Karen Lounds, Business Services Director, commented:
“It really was a fantastic day, and all of the students demonstrated a high level of commitment to the Young Enterprise Programme, which made for a very successful and inspiring event.”

These 4 winning finalists (as below) will now go on to the Northwest Finals at the University of Salford on 15th May and we are wishing those schools the best of luck!

Ponchelta from Cockermouth school in Cumbria
SAPP Enterprise from Christleton High School in Chester
Little Harvest from Our Lady’s Catholic High School in Preston
Talk2Teens, Alderley Edge High School for Girls and Fallibroome Academy

You may not realise that not all penguins come from cold places, in fact the Humboldt penguins originate from South America.  These penguins spend 75% of their lives gliding through the water, so it’s very important that it’s just right! Our salt is added to their pool and is essential to keep the penguins hydrated and allow them to maintain a stable body temperature. In the wild, Humboldt penguins face serious threats due to overfishing and the destruction of their natural habitat. The conservation work that Chester Zoo is doing is vital and so we feel privileged to be able to play a small but meaningful role within it.

Also, the timing couldn’t have been better as the zoo has just welcomed 10 new baby chicks to its Penguin Island habitat, but they don’t stay little for long as they will triple in size in the first three weeks of life.

In fact, Chester Zoo kindly invited a couple of our Salt team along to feed the penguins so we could see these amazing creatures up close. It served as an exciting opportunity to gain exclusive behind-the-scenes access while enjoying a face-to-face encounter with the penguins themselves.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused during this time and want to assure our neighbours that we are endeavouring to complete the work as soon as possible.

Thank you for your patience and understanding during this time.

It was with a heavy heart that we learnt of the passing of our Chairman Emeritus, Mr Ratan Tata.

A rare leader who steered by example, whose unwavering commitment to excellence and ambition saw the Tata Group extend beyond India. We are grateful that his vision included making us, here at TCE, part of the Tata family.

Not only a visionary leader but a philanthropist, he dedicated his time to supporting causes from healthcare to animal rights, rural development, sustainability and education.

He will be missed, and he will continue to inspire us all. We extend our greatest sympathies to his family.

Tata Chemicals Europe (“TCE”) and Wincanton, a leading supply chain partner for UK business, have signed a 10-year warehousing and logistics contract. The long-term partnership confirms Wincanton’s integral role in supporting TCE’s strategic growth plans, which include a UK-first from British Salt Limited – TCE’s high purity salt manufacturing business.

The leading supply chain partner will manage TCE’s new state-of-the-art 185,000 sq ft warehouse at British Salt’s site in Middlewich – which is set for completion in late summer 2023 – and from the autumn of 2023 will commence handling the logistics and distribution of all of TCE’s palletised, packed sodium bicarbonate and salt products.

From 2024, British Salt will become the UK’s first producer of pharmaceutical grade salt, which will be used for medications such as oral rehydration salts and life-saving haemodialysis treatment. This new pharmaceutical salt business will complement TCE’s existing, globally significant, pharmaceutical sodium bicarbonate business, and will benefit from TCE’s years of experience of the highly regulated pharmaceutical sector.

TCE’s packed pharmaceutical grade salt and sodium bicarbonate pharmaceutical products, along with food-grade salt and sodium bicarbonate, will be warehoused in the cutting-edge, highly controlled, new facility. The warehouse will be accredited to BRC and the MHRA standards, along with all relevant SHEQ accreditations. Wincanton will operate the new warehouse, ensuring that these stringent regulatory conditions are met for storing products used in the pharmaceutical and food industries.

By implementing its ‘best in class’ technology solutions, Wincanton will deliver sustainable value for TCE. Manhattan, a world-leading leading warehouse management system, will be deployed to enhance visibility and stock control, supporting TCE’s ongoing drive for exceptional customer service.

The usage of Wincanton’s Transport Control Tower technology will increase supply chain resilience, helping TCE optimise costs and support the reduction of transport-related CO2 emissions.

Wincanton will manage packed product distribution services for TCE and British Salt customers based both in the UK and internationally: the UK-made high grade, high purity products are distributed to over 60 countries across the globe.

Building on day-to-day operational excellence, the partnership will also drive innovation and diversification. Working together, both parties will collaborate closely to further enhance efficient, customer-oriented operations of warehousing and logistics.

Carl Meewezen, MD for Public and Industrial at Wincanton, said of the partnership:

“We are delighted to have been chosen as a trusted, long-term supply chain partner by Tata Chemicals Europe & British Salt to drive forward its exciting growth plans. This contract is a significant milestone for our Public and Industrial business and is testament to the strength, breadth, and quality of our services.

“We look forward to supporting Tata Chemicals Europe to enhance their customer service and also innovating to help unlock significant productivity and efficiency gains for Tata Chemicals Europe & British Salt over the coming decade.”

Angus Vause, Sales & Marketing Director of Tata Chemicals Europe added:

“With the opening of the new warehouse and new pharma grade salt manufacturing plant, we wanted to ensure that our chosen logistics partner would help us to deliver high quality customer service to match our high quality products. In Wincanton – with their warehouse and supply chain operational excellence – we have found an organisation that will help us do just that, supporting the journey to take our operations to the next level. Our customer relationships are paramount, and we will communicate full details of the change in storage facility well in advance, ensuring a seamless transition to the new warehouse.”

Tata Chemicals Europe (“TCE”) and Vertex Hydrogen have signed a ‘Heads of Terms’ offtake agreement for over 200 megawatts of low carbon hydrogen. 

TCE is one of Europe’s leading producers of sodium carbonate, salt, sodium bicarbonate and other products used in the manufacture of food and animal feed, glass, detergents, chemicals and several other industry applications.

In June 2022, Tata opened the UK’s first industrial scale carbon capture and usage plant. The £20 million investment captures 40,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year – the equivalent to taking over 20,000 cars off the road.

Under the new offtake agreement, Vertex will supply TCE with hydrogen as the manufacturer continues to decarbonise its operations in the UK with a target of achieving “net zero” manufacturing by 2030.

Joe Seifert, CEO of Vertex Hydrogen said: “We are thrilled to sign these Heads of Terms with Tata Chemicals Europe, as an industry leader driving tangible change to reduce emissions. This agreement marks another major step forward in the North West’s energy transition, as Vertex continues to help build the UK’s low carbon energy future.”

Martin Ashcroft, Managing Director of Tata Chemicals Europe, said: “We have been supporters of Vertex and the low carbon hydrogen segment as a real opportunity to further reduce emissions at our world class CHP facility. This agreement marks the next step in our relationship as we continue our journey as a leader in industrial decarbonisation.”

About Vertex Hydrogen

Vertex Hydrogen is a leading player in the energy transition which is developing the first large scale, low carbon hydrogen production hub in the UK. This will produce (in its initial phases) 1GW of hydrogen capacity (enough to power a city like Liverpool) and capture some 1.8 million tonnes of carbon per annum (equivalent to taking 750,000 cars off the roads).

By 2030, Vertex expect to deliver nearly 4GW of low carbon hydrogen – 40% of the UK Government’s national target. The organisation is investing an expected £1bn in the UK’s largest industrial region (the North-West) to enable businesses to switch from fossil fuels to low carbon energy, helping to secure and grow vital industries and jobs and unlocking billions of pounds of related investment.

An integral part of HyNet, one of two of the UK Government’s Track 1 clusters for industrial decarbonisation that was included in the UK Government’s Plan for Growth,  Vertex has been selected as one of four hydrogen projects to proceed to the due diligence phase in the Phase-2 Cluster Sequencing Process by the UK Government.

Learn more about Vertex Hydrogen here.

Today TATA officially opened the UK’s first industrial scale carbon capture and usage plant, signalling a key milestone in the race to meet the UK’s net zero targets.

The £20 million investment has been completed by Northwich-based Tata Chemicals Europe, one of Europe’s leading producers of sodium carbonate, salt and sodium bicarbonate. The plant captures 40,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year – the equivalent to taking over 20,000 cars off the roads and reduces TCE’s carbon emissions by more than 10%. The project will help unlock the future of carbon capture in the UK as it demonstrates the viability of the technology to remove carbon dioxide from power plant emissions and to use it in high end manufacturing applications.

In a world-first, carbon dioxide captured from energy generation emissions is being purified to food and pharmaceutical grade and used as a raw material in the manufacture of sodium bicarbonate which will be known as Ecokarb®. This unique and innovative process is patented in the UK with further patents pending in key territories around the world.

Ecokarb® will be exported to over 60 countries around the world, generating tens of millions of export revenue every year. Much of the sodium bicarbonate exported will be used in haemodialysis to treat people living with kidney disease.

The carbon capture plant, which was supported with a £4.2m grant through the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s (“BEIS”) Energy Innovation Programme, marks a major step towards sustainable manufacturing which will see TCE make net zero sodium bicarbonate and one of the lowest carbon footprint sodium carbonate products in the world.

The manufacturer is the only business in the UK to make these products which are used to make essential items in everyday life, from glass, washing detergents and pharmaceuticals to food, animal feed and water purification.

Martin Ashcroft, Managing Director of Tata Chemicals Europe, said: “The completion of the carbon capture and utilisation (“CCU”) demonstration plant enables us to reduce our carbon emissions, whilst securing our supply of high purity carbon dioxide, a critical raw material, helping us to grow the export of our pharmaceutical grade products across the world.

“With the support of our parent company, Tata Chemicals, and BEIS, we have been able to deliver this hugely innovative project, enabling our UK operations to take a major step in our carbon emissions reduction journey. Since 2000 we’ve reduced our carbon intensity by 50% and have a clear roadmap to reduce this by 80% by 2030.

“This project is a great example of business and Government together rising to the challenge of decarbonising energy intensive industrial manufacturing. The innovation to create this unique process is a major step forwards in the green industrial revolution and has been recognised by the award of a UK patent and patents pending in key territories across the world for the process.”

Speaking at the opening of the plant, Mike Amesbury, MP for Weaver Vale said: “Manufacturing has been key to this area for over 150 years so it’s great to be part of such an historic moment. Even though, today, there are many competing agendas, sustainability is still crucial and we must continue working towards Net Zero.

“The investment made by Tata Chemicals Europe in this leading-edge carbon capture plant will not only support the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions here, but it will also pave the way for others to use this technology. Tata Chemicals Europe helps support over 1000 jobs so this type of sustainable investment will help secure chemical manufacturing in Cheshire for future generations.”

Speaking about the opening of the plant, Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said: “This cutting-edge plant, backed by £4.2 million government funding, demonstrates how carbon capture is attracting new private capital into the UK and is boosting new innovation in green technologies.

“We are determined to make the UK a world-leader in carbon capture, which will help us reduce emissions and be a key part of the future of British industry.”

Already generating heat and electricity from one of the most efficient combined heat and power plants in the UK, TCE now produces half the amount of carbon dioxide per kilowatt of electricity generated compared to a typical gas fired power station.[1]

Martin Ashcroft added: “Our plant is really important in demonstrating the viability of the technology required to remove carbon dioxide from power plant emissions, helping to de-risk potentially larger investments in the future.

“Today marks a key development in our low carbon transition helping to develop more sustainable manufacturing techniques that can be applied at a global level.

“It also highlights our commitment to provide long-term, high quality jobs in our local communities which is a key part of our modern industrial strategy as we work towards a net zero economy.”

[1] Based on calculations using electricity generated by TCE and on the UK electricity network in 2020.

British Salt recently completed a major project at the Middlewich plant; replacing one of the heat exchangers used in the production of salt, improving production efficiency and reliability.