UK energy from waste carbon capture project goes live

The UK’s first ever energy from waste carbon capture project is now live.

The project, run by enfinium, has launched in Ferrybridge, aiming to capture a tonne of CO2 each day, operating over a period of at least 12 months as part of the pilot.

The move comes in an attempt to harness the climate potential of carbon capture and storage (CCS) solutions which abate the UK’s emissions from other activities. The project features a scaled-down version of the CCS technology developed by Hitachi Zosen Inova (HZI), with ambition to prove the projects feasibility and upscale the technology across six energy from waste facilities in the UK.

If performing to target, the project aims to bolster enfinium’s £1.7bn investment into decarbonisation which hopes to deliver 1.2mn tonnes of CO2 removal annually in the 2030s.

“CCS is critical to generating carbon removals at scale so the UK can achieve net zero,” says Mike Maudsley, chief executive as enfinium. “Using carbon capture, the energy from waste sector can provide significant levels of carbon removals and enfinium, with the support of HZI, are taking steps now to achieve this.”

The use of CCS at facilities such as Ferrybridge-1’s energy from waste facility supposedly generates negative emissions, meaning more carbon is removed from the atmosphere than is generated from the project’s operating. Biogenic content which naturally absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere, such as organic material, plants, paper, and waste food, make up roughly 50 per cent of unrecyclable waste produced by society. CCS projects aim to permanently capture this CO2 rather than releasing it back into the atmosphere.

“The project will meaningfully expand our carbon capture knowledge base and provide a springboard for delivering decarbonisation solutions worldwide,” adds Bruno-Frederic Baudouin, chief executive of HZI. “Our vision is to enhance decarbonisation, circularity and supply security for present and future generations.”

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