In the United Kingdom (UK), C-Capture, the designer of world-leading and innovative chemical processes for carbon dioxide (CO2) removal, and working alongside the Drax Group, has secured a GBP 5 million (≈ EUR 5.58 million) grant from the UK Government for a two-year programme of work to progress their bioenergy and carbon capture and storage (BECCS) project at Drax Power Station.
The funding will be used by Leeds-based C-Capture and Drax’s Innovation team to further develop its understanding of how C-Capture’s technology could be scaled up at Drax in North Yorkshire, to become the world’s first negative emissions power station in the 2020s – effectively removing the greenhouse gas (GHG) carbon dioxide (CO2) from atmosphere at the same time as electricity is being produced.
The company, which was established out of Leeds University’s School of Chemistry, has been working with Drax Group on its successful BECCS project, which started capturing carbon dioxide from February, proving the technology works.
The work being undertaken over the next two years includes:
- An extension of C-Capture’s existing pilot facilities at Drax Power Station;
- Plant performance optimisation trials;
- A chemistry validation and testing programme with world-class research partners SINTEF and the CO2Technology Centre Mongstad, in Norway;
- Process design development to move towards commercial-scale deployment, including re-purposing the existing Drax infrastructure for BECCS;
This award represents a vote of confidence in the scheme and will give C-Capture and Drax Group a clearer understanding of how the technology could be scaled up in the 2020s, enabling Drax Power Station to capture and store up to 16 million tonnes of CO2 each year.
Cutting edge technology to capture carbon will cut emissions as we work towards a net zero economy while creating new jobs – a key part of our modern Industrial Strategy. This innovative project from C-Capture and Drax represents a major milestone in efforts to rollout carbon capture at scale by the 2030s, said Minister for Energy and Clean Growth, Chris Skidmore.
The funding has been awarded by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) through its Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) Innovation Programme.
The on-going support from BEIS and our shareholders – BP, Drax and IP Group – has allowed C-Capture to build a team with unique skills and capabilities. The technology that we have developed is a game changer for carbon capture. Drax Group’s expertise in re-purposing existing infrastructure and C-Capture’s novel CCUS solution could allow the cost-effective deployment of BECCS for the first time on an industrial scale anywhere in the world, said Caspar Schoolderman, COO and Project Lead at C-Capture.
Aimed at supporting projects which can help deliver cost-effective carbon capture initiatives which could then be used in industrial applications, the BEIS funding will help the UK to lead the world in developing CCUS technologies.
If we scale C-Capture’s BECCS technology up at Drax across all four of our biomass generating units, the impacts will be far reaching. As the world’s first negative emissions power station, Drax could become the ‘anchor’ for a CCS network in the Humber region, capturing carbon from other nearby industrial emitters as well as our own CO2. C-Capture’s technology could enable us to not only make a real impact on reducing our own carbon emissions but also to deliver clean growth and jobs across the north, as well as new export opportunities for the UK making this project of major significance globally, said Will Gardiner, Drax Group CEO.
If Drax’s BECCS pilot can be scaled up to deliver negative emissions, Drax Power Station would be helping to remove gases that cause global warming from the atmosphere at the same time as electricity is produced. Drax Power Station is already the largest decarbonisation project in Europe having converted two-thirds of its generating units to use biomass instead of coal.
