Drax pilot first bioenergy carbon capture and storage plant in Europe

Drax has announced the commissioning of an ‘innovative’ Bioenergy Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) pilot plant. It expects that within the next few weeks the first carbon dioxide will be captured and converted into biomass.

If the pilot is successful, the six month project should capture a tonne of CO2 per day from the gases that are produced by the plant. The gases are converted from the renewable power that is generated using biomass from Drax’s power station in North Yorkshire, near Shelby.

Drax state that BECCS is vital to global efforts to combat climate change. The technology will mean that gases that cause global warming will be removed from the atmosphere at the same time that electricity is produced. Power generation could start to reduce the carbon that accumulates in the atmosphere and Drax deem this vital to be able to tackle climate change.

A partnership with Leeds-based C-Capture has meant that Drax is investing £400,000 (€452,160) in the first pilot project to be carried out at the power station that will deliver a rapid, lower cost demonstration of BECCS.         

CEO of Drax Group Will Gardiner said, “Our BECCS pilot project is the UK’S first step to delivering a key technology in the fight against climate change. If this project is successful, it could enable Drax to become the world’s first carbon negative power station.”

He continued, “At Drax we want to create a low carbon future – to do that we have to test the technologies that could allow us, as well as the UK and the world, to deliver negative emissions and stat to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.”

The Energy & Clean Growth Minister, Claire Perry has said that the project is a “major milestone developing cutting-edge technology to reduce emissions while growing the economy shows our modern Industrial Strategy in action.”