Carbon Capture Use and Storage: good for the climate, good for the economy.
Pioneering technology that can help the UK achieve net zero emissions and create jobs
Carbon capture use and storage (CCUS) recently received significant recognition in the Prime Minister’s ‘Ten Point Plan’ for a ‘Green Industrial Revolution’:
“Developing CCUS infrastructure will contribute to the economic transformation of the UK’s industrial regions, enhancing the long-term competitiveness of UK industry in a global net zero economy. It will help decarbonise our most challenging sectors, provide low carbon power and a pathway to negative emissions.”
The technology is at the centre of innovative pilot projects at Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire, and could help to transform the North of England’s industrial areas, preserving and creating the green jobs of the future.
PM Boris Johnson shares his conviction with experts such as the IPCC and the CCC who also state that deploying CCUS and bioenergy with carbon capture, use and storage (BECCS) will have an integral role to play in reaching net zero in the UK.
Combining sustainable biomass with carbon capture technology as pioneered at Drax Power Station could remove and capture more than 16 million tonnes of CO2 a year and put the power station at the centre of wider decarbonisation efforts across the North, as part of Zero Carbon Humber.
This is a partnership between a number of leading companies including Drax. It aims to bring together CCUS, BECCS and hydrogen production technologies and create the foundations from which the region’s emissions-heavy industries can regain their competitive edge, create jobs and rejuvenate the area.
The project aims to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) at scale from industrial processes around the region. These will be transported via pipelines to be permanently and safety stored several miles offshore under the North Sea.
Once the transport and storage infrastructure is in place, industrial facilities and energy generation units can install the equipment needed to capture caron and transport it via shared pipelines. This will allow users to drastically reduce their carbon footprint and produce green products for home and export markets.
A new report commissioned by Drax from consultants Vivid Economics concluded that up to 50,000 jobs could be created and supported in the industrial cluster. This could add up to £3.2 billion to the regional economy, while thousands more jobs would be supported across the supply chain and the wider economy, helping to deliver clean growth and level up the Humber.
The economic boost would come in addition to the environmental benefits of removing CO2 from the atmosphere. Drax Power Station has already proven BECCS technology can deliver negative emissions. Generating electricity using biomass from sustainably managed forests that absorb CO2 is a carbon neutral process. As part of the power generation process, adding CCUS and capturing the CO2 emitted, storing it permanently and safely under the North Sea turns the process into a carbon negative one.
Drax aims to operate as a carbon negative power generator by 2030. This could be a world first — and play an important role in decarbonising the whole electricity system.
Likewise, Zero Carbon Humber will play a huge role in decarbonising a large proportion of UK industry. According to the report from Vivid Economics, as much as 190 million tonnes (Mt) CO2 could be captured and stored by clusters in the UK each year.
The skills and technologies we develop to meet this challenge are ones we can export to help other countries around the globe — bringing in valuable revenues to the UK while also leading by example in tackling climate change.
