Sheffield University Waste Incineration Centre is a key University Research Centre based in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Sheffield. SUWIC has a global reputation for fundamental investigations into combustion, gasification, and pyrolysis of biomass/wastes and the associated power generation systems. It is also committed to providing education and training in this field.
The Centre specialises in several major areas of environmental concern, including waste management, flue gas clean up systems, recycle/ reuse of ash residuals and the eventual disposal of sludges. In the relevant fields of waste and energy management for cities, SUWIC played a key role in developing one of the UK's first, and still the largest district heating system, with 150MWh currently connected. This is operated by Veolia Environmental Services using heat generated by burning domestic, commercial and hospital wastes. SUWIC was also the major contributor to the successful University bid for the Queen's Anniversary Prize for Environmental Outreach in 2001.
This is just one example of the many areas of research SUWIC is carrying out to develop sustainable cities for the future.
The Veolia Energy Recovery Facility in Sheffield generates electricity for the National Grid and heat for the city's award winning district energy network from the waste and rubbish collected from the wheelie bins of Sheffield.
The University of Sheffield is able to significantly lower its carbon footprint having connected its sites to the district heating network.