UK’s first energy from waste carbon capture pilot announced
enfinium, in partnership with green technology company Hitachi Zosen Inova (HZI), will install the UK’s first energy from waste carbon capture pilot at its Ferrybridge-1 facility in West Yorkshire, to be operational from July 2024.
The pilot, which will capture up to one tonne of CO2 per day, will last for 12 months and will utilise a scaled-down version of CCS technology that could be used at energy from waste facilities on a commercial scale.
The pilot will enable enfinium to compare different amine solvents and collect performance data such as CO2 capture rate, energy consumption, and solvent degradation.
Energy from waste carbon capture
The pilot is part of enfinium’s longer term aim to lead an investment of up to £800 million in Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), capturing over 1.2 million tonnes of CO2 every year across its Ferrybridge 1 and 2 facilities, which enfinium has suggested would include “over 600,00 tonnes of durable, high-quality carbon removals – equivalent to taking the carbon emissions of every household in Manchester out of the atmosphere”.
Once captured, carbon would be transported via a dedicated pipeline through the Humber or Teeside to the East Coast Cluster, to be injected into a natural salt cavern or a depleted oil and gas field.
Carbon capture and storage: supporting net zero
In 2020, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) emphasised the necessity of installing carbon capture technology to all energy-from-waste plants by 2050, and starting in 2020s, in order for the UK to reach net zero.
Mike Maudsley, CEO of enfinium, said: “Installing carbon capture technology on energy from waste facilities is the only way the UK can decarbonise its unrecyclable waste. It also offers benefits including creating durable carbon removals, or negative emissions, at scale and generating reliable homegrown carbon negative power.
Bruno-Frédéric Baudouin, CEO of HZI, added: “The pilot will contribute significantly to our carbon capture knowledge base, which we are developing across several projects in Europe, and represents an important step not only towards to reducing CO2 emissions in our industry, but also towards making CO2 circular and driving down demand for fossil resources globally.”
