London — Tata Chemicals Europe plans to build the UK's first industrial-scale Carbon Capture, Usage and Demonstration plant, securing a sustainable stream of carbon dioxide for production of sodium bicarbonate, the company said Thursday.
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Register NowLocated at TCE's Northwich industrial site, the CCUD unit is scheduled to start operations in 2021, having been granted planning permission earlier in June.
The GBP16.7 million ($21.2 million) project is being supported by a GBP4.2 million grant from the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy through the government's CCU Demonstration Program.
Some 40,000 mt/year of CO2 would be extracted from flue gases from TCE's 96 MW gas-fired combined heat and power plant, reducing its emissions by 11%. "We hope that this project will demonstrate the viability of CCU and pave the way for further applications of the technology to support the decarbonization of industrial activity," TCE's Managing Director Martin Ashcroft said.
Two other CCUD grants were announced by BEIS Thursday.
Biomass/coal power generation company Drax has received GBP500,000 towards the GBP1 million Fuel Cell Biogenic Carbon Capture Demonstration plant, which is already capturing carbon at its bioenergy CCS pilot.
Origen Power, meanwhile, has received GBP249,000 for its Oxy-Fuelled Flash Calciner Project, a carbon-negative process that breaks down limestone into pure CO2, which can be stored or used, and lime, which can be used industrially and, in being used, removes CO2 from the air.
In January 2019, the UK increased funding available to carbon capture usage and storage, or CCUS, to GBP24 million.
Projects benefiting from CCUS funds include:
- C-Capture -- Negative CO2 emissions from bioenergy (BECCS, sited at Drax) -- GBP4.9 million towards a GBP11.1 million project
- Pale Blue Dot Energy -- Acorn storage site -- GBP4.8 million towards a GBP8.1 million project
- Tigre Technologies Limited -- Integration of CCUS in a 200 MW open-cycle gas turbine in the North Sea -- GBP163,909 towards a GBP243,000 project
- Translational Energy Research Centre (PACT-2) -- Pilot-Scale Advanced Capture Technology (PACT) - GBP7 million toward a GBP21 million project
- Progressive Energy -- HyNet Industrial CCS - GBP494,626 towards a GBP765,500 project
- OGCI Climate Investments -- Clean Gas Project -- GBP3.8 million towards a GBP18 million project.
On Monday, the UK Parliament passed a net zero carbon emissions bill, amending the country's 2050 greenhouse gas reduction target in the Climate Change Act from at least 80% to 100%.
Its analysis foresees the need to capture 176 million mt CO2 in 2050 across the economy, of which 57 million mt would be from power generation, 46 million mt from hydrogen production, 35 million mt from bioenergy, 24 million mt from industry and 9 million mt from biofuel production.
-- Karishma Bhimani, karishma.bhimani@spglobal.com
-- Henry Edwardes-Evans, Henry.Edwardes-Evans@spglobal.com
-- Edited by Geetha Narayanasamy, newsdesk@spglobal.com