Government funnels £26m into CCUS projects

A Drax power plant. The company is one of the beneficiaries of the new fund

Funding has been awarded under two programmes – the £20m Carbon Capture and Utilisation Demonstration programme (CCUD) and the £24m Call for CCUS Innovation programme.

Interim energy and clean growth minister Chris Skidmore said: “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 Tata Chemicals Europe represents a major milestone in efforts to rollout carbon capture at scale by the 2030s.”

Tata Chemicals Europe is one of the major companies to secure funding, with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) providing a £4.7m grant for the UK’s first large-scale CCUS facility in Northwich, Cheshire.

According to Tata, which is investing £16.7m into the existing 96MW gas-fired combined heat and power plant, it will be able to capture and process up to 40,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, reducing the company’s annual emissions by 11% once it is constructed in two years’ time.

In response to this announcement Dr Luke Warren, Chief Executive of the CCSA, commented: “This is fantastic news for the development of carbon capture usage and storage in the UK. This £26m of funding is critical first step to ensuring the first CCUS projects are up and running by the mid-2020s in a range of clusters across the country, and will help the Government meet its ambition to deploy the technology at scale in the 2030s.

“If the UK is serious about achieving net zero emissions by 2050, this is just the sort of action that is needed now.”

The announcement follows a report claiming the UK Government should update its “vague terminology” on carbon capture usage and storage (CCUS) deployment in the UK to create clear policy drivers that transform the technology into a primary tool to meet national and international climate change targets.

The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee’s report, released 25 April notes that the UK could not credibly adopt a net-zero emissions target with CCUS playing a key role. The UK has today (27 June) passed a net-zero target into law.

Project portfolio

The other projects to benefit from the funds are Drax’s Fuel Cell Biogenic Carbon Capture Demonstration, Origen Power’s Oxy-Fuelled Flash Calciner Project, C-Capture’s Negative CO2 emissions from BECCS – backed by almost £5m in funding and Pale Blue Dot Energy’s Acorn storage site which is also backed by almost £5m.

TiGRE Technologies’ integration of CCUS technology to a 200MW OCGT TiGRE Project located in the North Sea, the Translational Energy Research Centre (PACT-2) – led by University of Sheffield / Pilot-Scale Advanced Capture Technology (PACT), Progressive Energy’s HyNet Industrial CCS, and OGCI Climate Investments’ Clean Gas Project have also been supported.

Matt Mace