Hawkins have a long track record of project delivery in the food, pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturing sector for various clients such as Heinz, AstraZeneca, Weetabix, Thornton & Ross, Dairy Crest and British Salt. The Hawkins scope of work for the CCU plant includes:

  • Acting as Principal Contractor for the £16.7m project, with responsibility for the project management of the CCU plant construction.
  • The civil works, which will involve the preparation of a site the equivalent size of a typical Premier League football pitch and piling to a depth of 13m to prepare the ground for process equipment installation.
  • The steelworks for a dedicated substation for the CCU plant and the liquefaction building that will house the process equipment that will liquefy the captured and purified carbon dioxide ready for storage and use. The steelwork used in this will be the equivalent weight of a large passenger aeroplane.
  • The installation of the CCU process equipment including the absorber tower, a key component of capturing carbon dioxide from the energy plant emissions, along with the purification, liquefaction and other process equipment.

Products supplied by TCE are critical raw materials to the food manufacturing supply chain as well as pharmaceutical product manufacturing, and thus work on this project has commenced during the COVID-19 lockdown. To enable this, Hawkins have introduced new policies and procedures to ensure a safe work environment for site employees and contractors. Steps have been taken to ensure that social distancing is observed, and other measures have been implemented including additional handwashing facilities, staggered break and lunchtimes and frequent disinfection of break areas the following use. Where social distancing is not possible, workers are using additional PPE.

Commenting on the project, Commercial Director Ben Birchall said:

“We’re delighted to have been appointed to deliver this high-profile project on behalf of Tata Chemicals Europe. It is a strategically important project for all stakeholders; to the UK on its pathway to net zero emissions and for Tata as the company aims to reduce emissions and provide a critical raw material. This project is a major win for Hawkins, as it supports our expansion and demonstrates our ability to deliver clean growth projects on behalf of our clients.

“We’ve been looking to build our project portfolio in the clean growth and chemicals sector for a number of years, and this venture is the culmination of this effort. There is a stringent timeline to this project, and I’m confident that our highly experienced team will deliver in time and within budget, whilst also ensuring that the health and safety of all those on the site continues to be of paramount importance.”

Commenting on the appointment of Hawkins, Ladan Iravanian, Project Director at TCE said: “We first worked with Hawkins in 2018 at our British Salt manufacturing site. The project they completed for us at this time was implemented extremely well, and we are pleased to be working with Ben and the Hawkins team again as we deliver this hugely exciting carbon capture and utilisation project. The project continues to be delivered with onsite work handled by Hawkins and is accelerating as we near the installation of the major CCU process equipment.

“As we are the UK’s only manufacturer of sodium bicarbonate, an important ingredient in food manufacturing and a critical component of some pharmaceutical products, it is a great credit to the combined efforts of all our team and supply chain that construction on this project continues safely during the COVID-19 pandemic.”