Drax planning ‘holy grail’ of green power
Pilot ‘could boost fight with global warming’
DRAX POWER Station has unveiled plans for a project which it believes could place Yorkshire at the front of the global race to develop green energy.
Britain’s biggest power station is piloting the first bioenergy carbon capture storage (Beccs) project of its type in Europe – a move it says could eventually make the renewable electricity it produces carbon-negative.
Drax power station in North Yorkshire produces seven per cent of the UK’s electricity and 65 per cent of its output is through burning biomass. The firm announced today that it has joined forces with Leeds-based project C-Capture in what it says could be the first of several pilot projects aimed at delivering “a rapid, lower-cost demonstration of Beccs”.
Beccs has been touted as carbon-negative as it uses plants which take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and then stores this when it is released as part of the electricity-generation process.
Drax said that if this pilot were to lead to a full rollout, it would achieve what the team behind the technology has called the “holy grail” of power generation.
The firm, which employs 900 staff in North Yorkshire, has pointed to 2016 research which suggests that Beccs could deliver about 55 million tonnes of net negative emissions a year in the UK by the 2050s – approximately half the UK’s emissions target.
Drax says its biomass conversion has been the “largest decarbonisation project in Europe”.
Andy Koss, the chief executive of Drax Power, said that the pilot scheme could help to extend the life of Drax and secure jobs for the future.
DRAX IS to pilot the first bioenergy carbon capture storage (BECCS) project of its kind in Europe, which could make the renewable electricity produced at its North Yorkshire power station carbon-negative.
Bosses at Drax believe that BECCS will play a vital role in global efforts to combat climate change because the technology will mean the gases that cause global warning can be removed from the atmosphere at the same time as electricity is produced.
A Drax statement said: “This means power generation would no longer contribute to climate change, but would start to reduce the carbon accumulating in the atmosphere.”
The demonstration project will see Drax join forces with Leeds-based C-Capture and invest £400,000 in what could be the first of several pilot projects undertaken at Drax to deliver a rapid, lower-cost demonstration of BECCS.
The spokesman added: “Drax Power Station became the largest decarbonisation project in Europe by upgrading its existing facilities and, if the pilot is successful, it will examine options for a similar repurposing of existing infrastructure to deliver more carbon savings.
“A report by the Energy Technology Institute in 2016 has suggested that by the 2050s BECCS could deliver roughly 55 million tonnes of net negative emissions a year in the UK – approximately half the nation’s emissions target.”
The first phase of the project, starting this month, will assess whether the solvent C-Capture has developed is compatible with the biomass flue gas at Drax power station.
A lab-scale study into the feasibility of using the flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) absorbers at the power station will also be carried out to assess potential capture rates.
Drax’s management believe that FGD equipment can play a vital role in reducing sulphur emissions from coal, but it has become redundant on three of the generating units at Drax that have been upgraded to use biomass, because the wood pellets used produce minimal levels of sulphur.
The Drax statement said: “Depending on the outcome of a feasibility study, the C-Capture team will proceed to the second phase of the pilot in the autumn, when a demonstration unit will be installed to isolate the carbon dioxide produced by the biomass combustion.”
Will Gardiner, CEO of Drax Group, said: “If the world is to achieve the targets agreed in Paris and pursue a cleaner future, negative emissions are a must – and BECCS is a leading technology to help achieve it.
“This pilot is the UK’s first step, but it won’t be the only one at Drax. We will soon have four operational biomass units, which provide us with a great opportunity to test different technologies that could allow Drax, the country and the world to deliver negative emissions and start to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.”
Unlike previous CCS projects Drax has been involved with, this is an early pilot for a new technology. It will examine the potential of a new form of carbon capture, post combustion on biomass, rather than coal.
The Government’s Clean Growth Strategy identified BECCS as one of several greenhouse gas removal technologies that could remove emissions from the atmosphere and help achieve long-term decarbonisation.
C-Capture is a spin-out from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Leeds, established through funding from IP Group plc.