Drax and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) have confirmed plans to install a pilot bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) facility this autumn.
The pilot will test MHI’s carbon capture technology and will enhance Drax’s technical understanding of its ability to deliver negative emissions at its power plant in northern England.
The 12-month pilot will capture around 300kg of CO2 per day for the purpose of confirming the technology’s suitability for use with biomass flue gases at Drax.
Will Gardiner, Drax Group CEO, said: “Our plans to develop ground-breaking BECCS at the power station in North Yorkshire will help to boost the UK’s economy following the Covid crisis and support the development of a zero carbon industrial cluster in the Humber region – delivering clean growth and protecting thousands of jobs.
“We’re very pleased to be working with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries on this exciting pilot which will further our understanding of the potential for deploying BECCS at scale at Drax - taking us closer to achieving our world-leading ambition to be a carbon negative company by 2030.”
Two of MHI’s proprietary solvents will be tested, one of which – KS-1 – is already being used at 13 commercial plants delivered by MHI, including Petra Nova in Texas, USA, the world’s largest post combustion carbon capture facility, capturing 1.4 million tonnes of CO2 a year. The other is the newly developed KS-21 Solvent, designed to achieve significant performance improvements and cost savings.
Implementing BECCS at Drax could deliver 16 million tonnes of negative emissions a year – a third of the negative emissions the UK needs from BECCS to reach its zero carbon targets by 2050, Drax said.
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