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Released July 09, 2019 | GALWAY, IRELAND
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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--The U.K. government has awarded funding of £26 million ($32 million) to carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) projects including one at Tata Chemicals Europe's (TCE's) plant in Northwich, which would be the country's biggest CCUS project to date.
The funding comes slightly more than three years after the government pulled funding for a £1 billion ($1.26 billion) competition to develop commercial-scale carbon capture at power stations.
The Tata plant, which is the U.K.'s only manufacturer of soda ash and sodium bicarbonate, is being awarded £4.2 million ($5.3 million) toward the construction of a facility to capture and utilise 40,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) a year--the equivalent of 22,000 cars. The project will capture CO2 from the flue gases of TCE's 96-megawatt (MW) gas-fired combined heat and power (CHP) plant, which supplies steam and power to the company's Northwich operations and other industrial businesses in the area. The CCU plant will then purify and liquefy the gas for use directly in the manufacture of high-grade sodium bicarbonate, which is primarily used in the pharmaceutical sector. When commissioned fully in 2021 it will be the largest carbon capture plant in the U.K., removing 100 times more CO2 from the atmosphere than the country's current largest facility. It will also reduce TCE's carbon emissions at the CHP plant by 11%.
U.K. Energy and Clean Growth Minister Chris Skidmore said: "Carbon capture, utilisation and storage has an essential role to play in our efforts to tackle climate change, helping us to meet our ambition to end our contribution to global warming entirely by 2050. Innovative schemes like Tata Chemicals' will be essential. Their plans demonstrate the enormous potential that CCUS has, reducing our emissions and helping companies to innovate and export products all around the world."
TCE Managing Director Martin Ashcroft added: "The CCU demonstration plant will enable us to reduce our carbon emissions, whilst securing supplies of a critical raw material, helping to grow the export of our products across the world."
Carbon capture investment in Europe is picking up slowly, but the sector has been hit in recent years with major projects in Norway and the U.K. losing financing. In 2015, the U.K. government had promised £1 billion ($1.26 billion) in funding to two CCS projects--White Rose and Peterhead--but by the end of the year, it pulled that support. For additional information, see December 2, 2015, article - U.K. Cancels Funding for Carbon Capture Projects.
Drax Group plc (LSE:DRX) (Selby, England) also has received £5 million ($6.3 million) in funding from the government for its Bioenergy Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) pilot plant at its Drax power plant, using technology developed by Leeds University spin-out company C-Capture (Leeds, England). Last year, Industrial Info revealed that it had started examining the solvent C-Capture developed to ensure it was compatible with the biomass flue gas. For additional information, see June 5, 2018, article - Drax Backs Europe's First Biomass Carbon Capture Project.
"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," commented Will Gardiner, Drax Group's chief executive officer. "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 U.K., making this project of major significance globally."
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, six offices in North America and 12 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Our European headquarters are located in Galway, Ireland. Follow IIR Europe on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn For more information on our European coverage send inquiries to info@industrialinfo.eu or visit us online at Industrial Info Europe.
The funding comes slightly more than three years after the government pulled funding for a £1 billion ($1.26 billion) competition to develop commercial-scale carbon capture at power stations.
The Tata plant, which is the U.K.'s only manufacturer of soda ash and sodium bicarbonate, is being awarded £4.2 million ($5.3 million) toward the construction of a facility to capture and utilise 40,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) a year--the equivalent of 22,000 cars. The project will capture CO2 from the flue gases of TCE's 96-megawatt (MW) gas-fired combined heat and power (CHP) plant, which supplies steam and power to the company's Northwich operations and other industrial businesses in the area. The CCU plant will then purify and liquefy the gas for use directly in the manufacture of high-grade sodium bicarbonate, which is primarily used in the pharmaceutical sector. When commissioned fully in 2021 it will be the largest carbon capture plant in the U.K., removing 100 times more CO2 from the atmosphere than the country's current largest facility. It will also reduce TCE's carbon emissions at the CHP plant by 11%.
U.K. Energy and Clean Growth Minister Chris Skidmore said: "Carbon capture, utilisation and storage has an essential role to play in our efforts to tackle climate change, helping us to meet our ambition to end our contribution to global warming entirely by 2050. Innovative schemes like Tata Chemicals' will be essential. Their plans demonstrate the enormous potential that CCUS has, reducing our emissions and helping companies to innovate and export products all around the world."
TCE Managing Director Martin Ashcroft added: "The CCU demonstration plant will enable us to reduce our carbon emissions, whilst securing supplies of a critical raw material, helping to grow the export of our products across the world."
Carbon capture investment in Europe is picking up slowly, but the sector has been hit in recent years with major projects in Norway and the U.K. losing financing. In 2015, the U.K. government had promised £1 billion ($1.26 billion) in funding to two CCS projects--White Rose and Peterhead--but by the end of the year, it pulled that support. For additional information, see December 2, 2015, article - U.K. Cancels Funding for Carbon Capture Projects.
Drax Group plc (LSE:DRX) (Selby, England) also has received £5 million ($6.3 million) in funding from the government for its Bioenergy Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) pilot plant at its Drax power plant, using technology developed by Leeds University spin-out company C-Capture (Leeds, England). Last year, Industrial Info revealed that it had started examining the solvent C-Capture developed to ensure it was compatible with the biomass flue gas. For additional information, see June 5, 2018, article - Drax Backs Europe's First Biomass Carbon Capture Project.
"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," commented Will Gardiner, Drax Group's chief executive officer. "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 U.K., making this project of major significance globally."
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, six offices in North America and 12 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Our European headquarters are located in Galway, Ireland. Follow IIR Europe on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn For more information on our European coverage send inquiries to info@industrialinfo.eu or visit us online at Industrial Info Europe.
