ScottishPower launches UK’s first carbon capture prototype

The groundbreaking test project is small-scale, but is an exact replica of a full-scale carbon capture plant and marks the first time CO2 has been captured from a working coal-fired power plant in the UK. ScottishPower said it put the company on track to deliver a full CCS demonstration project by 2014 in line with government objectives.

The prototype, which has been developed by a company called Aker Clean Carbon, will be able to process 1000 cubic metres of exhaust gas per hour from Longannet. It will allow ScottishPower to test the complex chemistry involved in capturing CO2 from a fossil fuel power station in readiness to deploy a full-scale demonstration project, eventually capturing up to 90 per cent of CO2 from Longannet – the equivalent to taking one million cars off the road.

Speaking at Longannet as the test unit was switched on, Nick Horler, chief executive of ScottishPower, said: “This […] is a major step forward in delivering the reality of carbon-free fossil fuel electricity generation.

“The test unit uses the exact same technology that we aim to retrofit to the station for a commercial scale CCS project by 2014, and the leap from 1 megawatt (MW) to 330 MW is now within sight.”

Today, Iberdrola, the parent company of ScottishPower, also announced it would establish a global CCS ‘centre of excellence’ in the UK. In the first step in creating this centre of excellence it said it was funding a ‘chair’ in CCS at the University of Edinburgh.

In April, the UK Government announced it was backing CCS technology and undertook to deliver up to four demonstration projects using the technology, which has yet to be proven to work on a commercial scale.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) involves capturing the carbon dioxide emitted from the burning of fossil fuels, transporting it and storing it in a secure geological facility.

The North Sea is seen as critical in developing a CSS industry in the UK because of its carbon storage potential. A recent Scottish Regional Study highlighted the Central North Sea’s potential to store all of Europe’s CO2 emissions well into the next century and, yesterday, the UK and Norway announced they had commissioned a joint study into the role the North Sea could play in storing carbon dioxide captured from fossil-fuel power stations in European countries.

In another related move, today, Scottish Power and The Climate Group, a charity which works with businesses and governments around the world to accelerate a low carbon economy, announced they would work together on sharing the intelligence ScottishPower gathers about making CCS, with developing countries around the world.