Carbon capture innovators to give UK the edge
22 Nov 2012
London – The UK government has announced 13 winning projects in a £20-million competition intended to drive innovative development work in the field of carbon capture and storage (CCS).
Universities and energy and technology companies feature prominently in the list of projects (see below) to have been awarded the money from the UK’s £125-million R&D fund for technologies to allow the safe removal and storage of carbon emissions from coal and gas plants.
Grants worth £18.3 million have been agreed so far, which will leverage an additional £18m from project participants.
Winning projects include NET Power which is working with Stoke-based Goodwins and Toshiba to develop high pressure turbines, and Millennium Generation, which is building a 3MWe carbon capture pilot plant in Stainforth, Doncaster.
The projects announcement coincided with the launch of an interim report by the Carbon Capture and Storage Cost Reduction Task Force. This found that CCS has the potential to compete with other low carbon forms of energy by the 2020s.
These announcements help maintain the UK’s place leading the world in CCS and delivering an affordable and secure low carbon energy mix, claimed Edward Davey, secretary of state for energy and climate change.
He cited Carbon Clean Solutions’ decision to base its global technology hub in the UK and NET Power and Toshiba selection of UK manufacturer Goodwins for its project as evidence of this
“Carbon Capture and Storage is a huge opportunity for our world class research industry,” said Davey. “Through the projects we have selected, pioneering companies and universities will be able to create new jobs and expand their markets.
The 13 successful projects under the DECC £20m CCS Innovation competition are:
Econic Technologies - an SME university spin out working with Imperial College to develop CO2 based, rather than oil based, plastics. [£103,000 grant].
CCm Research - an SME working with the Royal Agricultural College to develop fertiliser using plant derived material combined with CO2 captured from power stations. [£79,000 grant].
Carbon Sequestration - an SME working with Sheffield University. Perlemax Limited, and Viridor Waste Management to create high-value chemicals from CO2 using novel algae and high-efficiency bioreactor technology [£79,000 grant].
ITM Power - the energy storage and clean fuel company working with Scotia Gas Networks, SSE, Logan Energy and Kiwa GASTEC to develop the use of hydrogen, made from renewable energy, to turn CO2 into synthetic methane. Initial applications could use CO2 from whiskey distilleries [£100,000 grant].
Interconnector UK - working with Heriot-Watt University to develop more accurate CO2 meters [£85,000 grant].
Costain - working with Edinburgh University to develop a new, cheaper absorber design to help carbon capture [£156,000 grant].
Costain - working with Edinburgh University and University of Leeds to develop an improved oxyfuel capture technology [£192,000 grant].
Cambridge University - working with Shell, Manchester University and the British Geological Survey to develop a new scientific model for CO2 storage using data from Shell’s scientific drilling site in Utah [£735,000 grant].
Future Environmental Technologies (FET) [External link] - a Bristol based SME working with Solutia UK Ltd, Hoare Lea & Partners, DB Core Systems Ltd and Malvern Executive Ltd to build a pilot facility which will capture CO2 from a Combined Heat and Power plant at Solutia’s Newport factory using the FET developed “Carbon Water eXchange (CWx)” capture technology [£2m grant].
Premier Oil - working with Durham University, University of Sheffield, Bath University, Newcastle University, Cleveland Potash and STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory to develop a new CO2 monitoring technology which will be tested at the Boulby mine and laboratory in Yorkshire [£647,000 grant].
NET Power - a US company taking forward a UK-invented low carbon power generation technology, is working with Stoke-based Goodwins [External link] - one of the 10 oldest companies listed on the stock exchange - and Toshiba to develop high-pressure turbines. These new turbines will be exported to the US for NetPower’s proposed 25MWe pilot plant [£4.98m grant].
Millennium Generation - working with Calix, HEL East and Imperial College to build a 3MWe pilot plant at Stainforth, Doncaster using Calix’s Endex capture technology [£5.8m grant].
Carbon Clean Solutions - an SME establishing a new technology hub in UK, working with Imperial College and the
UK CCS Research Centre’s Carbon Capture Pilot Scale Advanced Capture Technologies facility at Beighton, Sheffield to develop new solvents for use in CCS systems. [£3.35m grant].
