U.K. carbon capture firm plans energy unit in Texas

Drax Group, a U.k.-based company that converts plant matter to energy, plans to base its carbon capture business in Houston, where it aims to focus on developing facilities that generate power with woody biomass and capture carbon dioxide.

The facilities it aims to develop could generate dispatchable renewable power fueled by wood waste and capture more carbon than is created in the process, making them carbon negative.

The hunt for power that is both renewable and dispatchable — can be turned on and off — is considered a key part of the transition from fossil fuels. Unlike intermittent renewable sources such as wind and solar, dispatchable generation sources such as natural gas and coal can be activated quickly, readily adjusting the power they are supplying to the grid on demand.

Drax, which also manufacturers its own biomass pellets, said it gets its residual wood waste from sawmills and other sources. The company has selected two sites for its bioenergy generation and carbon capture facilities “in the U.S. South” and is evaluating nine more sites, but declined to be more specific about their locations. The company is hiring more than 100 people to work in its Houston office.

In addition to developing new power generation and carbon capture facilities, the company also aims to convert coal plants into biomass plants. In the U.K., it converted a coal plant to use biomass and is now piloting its carbon capture technology there.

Houston was right for the regional headquarters because of its concentration of people skilled in the energy industry and for its emerging status as a carbon capture hub, the company said.

“Houston was a natural fit for our (bioenergy with carbon capture and storage) headquarters as it is the energy capital of the world with a proven, highly skilled workforce that will be needed to lead the world’s clean energy transition,” Drax CEO Will Gardiner said in a statement.

Drax’s office in Monroe, La., will remain the headquarters for its pellet-making operations in North America.