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Released June 05, 2018 | GALWAY, IRELAND
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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Europe's first carbon capture and storage (CCS) project at a biomass power plant has been announced by Drax Group plc (LSE:DRX) (Selby, England).
The company, best known as the operator of the U.K.'s largest operational coal-fired plant, has been actively cleaning up its operation by converting three of the six coal-fired units at its North Yorkshire plant to biomass, with conversion underway at a fourth. It currently stands as Europe's largest decarbonisation project. The company is teaming up with C-Capture (Lees, England) in a project that, if successful, could make the renewable electricity produced at the plant "carbon negative."
The first phase of the project, starting this month, will examine if the solvent C-Capture has developed is compatible with the biomass flue gas at Drax Power Station. A lab-scale study into the feasibility of re-utilising the flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) absorbers at the power station will also be carried out to assess potential capture rates. The FGD equipment on the three-biomass converted units is now redundant, Drax said, due to the minimal levels of sulphur in the wood pellets burned. Assuming the feasibility test is a success, C-Capture will proceed to the second phase of the pilot in the autumn, installing a demonstration unit to isolate the carbon dioxide (CO2) produced by the biomass combustion. Last September, Industrial Info reported that the company applied for permission to convert two units to gas. Drax said gas is the way forward for securing the plant's future. For additional information, see September 22, 2017, article - Drax Moves from Coal to Gas and Battery Storage.
Will Gardiner, the chief executive officer of Drax Group, said: "If the world is to achieve the targets agreed in Paris and pursue a cleaner future, negative emissions are a must--and Bioenergy CCS (BECCS) is a leading technology to help achieve it. This pilot is the U.K.'s first step, but it won't be the only one at Drax. We will soon have four operational biomass units, which provide us with a great opportunity to test different technologies that could allow Drax, the country and the world, to deliver negative emissions and start to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere."
Claire Perry, the U.K. minister of Energy & Clean Growth, commented: "We aim to make the U.K. a world leader in carbon capture usage and storage, a key part of our modern Industrial Strategy. It's hugely exciting that Drax has chosen to invest in this innovative project, demonstrating how government support for innovation can create an environment where companies can develop new technologies and scale up investment to build the sectors we will need to achieve long term decarbonisation."
C-Capture was spun-off from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Leeds. Chris Rayner, founder of C-Capture and professor of organic chemistry at the University of Leeds, said: "We have developed fundamentally new chemistry to capture CO2 and have shown that it should be suitable for capturing the carbon produced from bioenergy processes. The key part is now to move it from our own facilities and into the real world at Drax. Through the pilot scheme, we aim to demonstrate that the technology we've developed is a cost-effective way to achieve one of the holy grails of CO2 emissions strategies--negative emissions in power production, which is where we believe the potential CO2 emissions reductions are likely to be the greatest."
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 company, best known as the operator of the U.K.'s largest operational coal-fired plant, has been actively cleaning up its operation by converting three of the six coal-fired units at its North Yorkshire plant to biomass, with conversion underway at a fourth. It currently stands as Europe's largest decarbonisation project. The company is teaming up with C-Capture (Lees, England) in a project that, if successful, could make the renewable electricity produced at the plant "carbon negative."
The first phase of the project, starting this month, will examine if the solvent C-Capture has developed is compatible with the biomass flue gas at Drax Power Station. A lab-scale study into the feasibility of re-utilising the flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) absorbers at the power station will also be carried out to assess potential capture rates. The FGD equipment on the three-biomass converted units is now redundant, Drax said, due to the minimal levels of sulphur in the wood pellets burned. Assuming the feasibility test is a success, C-Capture will proceed to the second phase of the pilot in the autumn, installing a demonstration unit to isolate the carbon dioxide (CO2) produced by the biomass combustion. Last September, Industrial Info reported that the company applied for permission to convert two units to gas. Drax said gas is the way forward for securing the plant's future. For additional information, see September 22, 2017, article - Drax Moves from Coal to Gas and Battery Storage.
Will Gardiner, the chief executive officer of Drax Group, said: "If the world is to achieve the targets agreed in Paris and pursue a cleaner future, negative emissions are a must--and Bioenergy CCS (BECCS) is a leading technology to help achieve it. This pilot is the U.K.'s first step, but it won't be the only one at Drax. We will soon have four operational biomass units, which provide us with a great opportunity to test different technologies that could allow Drax, the country and the world, to deliver negative emissions and start to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere."
Claire Perry, the U.K. minister of Energy & Clean Growth, commented: "We aim to make the U.K. a world leader in carbon capture usage and storage, a key part of our modern Industrial Strategy. It's hugely exciting that Drax has chosen to invest in this innovative project, demonstrating how government support for innovation can create an environment where companies can develop new technologies and scale up investment to build the sectors we will need to achieve long term decarbonisation."
C-Capture was spun-off from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Leeds. Chris Rayner, founder of C-Capture and professor of organic chemistry at the University of Leeds, said: "We have developed fundamentally new chemistry to capture CO2 and have shown that it should be suitable for capturing the carbon produced from bioenergy processes. The key part is now to move it from our own facilities and into the real world at Drax. Through the pilot scheme, we aim to demonstrate that the technology we've developed is a cost-effective way to achieve one of the holy grails of CO2 emissions strategies--negative emissions in power production, which is where we believe the potential CO2 emissions reductions are likely to be the greatest."
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.
