A 100 tonne carbon capture pilot plant began operating at Ferrybridge coal power station in Yorkshire today.
The £21 million project, a collaboration between the UK’s
SSE and
Doosan Power Systems and Sweden’s
Vattenfall, will capture 100 tonnes of CO2 from five megawatts (MW) of coal-fired power a day. Following the
collapse last month of the Government’s £1 billion Longannet carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in Fife, Scotland, Ferrybridge, near Castleford in Yorkshire, is now the biggest CC trial in the UK. Unlike Longannet, though, Ferrybridge is not commercial-scale, and instead, said SSE, aims to bridge the gap between small-scale carbon capture and storage demonstration projects and commercial-scale ones.
"The development of viable carbon capture technology is central to the UK’s climate change and energy security objectives," SSE chief executive, Ian Marchant, said. "We believe projects such as this will be absolutely crucial in establishing when and how the
technology can be developed. What we have here today at Ferrybridge will provide an invaluable source of reference and learning for the industry as a whole."
"Milestone"
Delayed by a year due to weather problems, the two-year pilot has so far received £6 million of public funding. Today Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne described its launch as a "milestone" for the development of the CCS in the UK.
"This is the first operating carbon capture plant attached to a power station at this scale in the UK," he said. "[It will] be invaluable to the wider commercial scale deployment of CCS by reducing uncertainty, driving down costs and developing the UK supply chain and skills."
Technology
Designed, built and commissioned by Doosan, the plant uses an advanced amine scrubbing technology to capture the CO2 from the coal. Jean-Michel Aubertin, chief executive officer at Doosan said it was "an essential step in the optimisation and proving of post-combustion capture of CO2".
CCS involves capturing the carbon dioxide emitted from the burning of fossil fuels, transporting it and storing it in a secure geological facility. Once proven on a commercial scale, analysis has shown that it could play an important part in a mix of energy technologies and measures to reduce global emissions and help avoid the most serious consequences of climate change.
The Government has pledged to back four commercial-scale demonstration projects between now and 2020 and said the £1 billion it was planning to invest at Longannet would be earmarked for other projects. However, there was confusion about when that funding would be released
earlier this week, when Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said some of the £1 billion earmarked for CCS would be used to fund other infrastructure projects in the current spending review period.
Ferrybridge is also one of six UK CCS projects undergoing scrutiny by the European
Investment Bank for funding, with a decision expected in mid-2012.
Multi-fuel power plant
SSE is planning to develop a multi-fuel plant at its Ferrybridge power station. The 108MW capacity would use a range of fuel sources, including biomass, waste-derived fuels and waste wood.
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