Drax signs deal with MHI to use carbon capture tech
Drax Group has today announced a long-term deal to use Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’s (MHI) carbon capture technology as it seeks to make its UK plant emissions negative by 2030.
By using the tech at its biomass-fired power plant in Yorkshire, Drax said it could ultimately remove more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than is emitted across its operations.
The first bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) unit at Drax could be in action by 2027, with a second following in 2029.
The technology has the potential to capture and store at least 8m tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, the firm said.
It could also create thousands of jobs in the north-west over the coming years.
Drax’s chief executive Will Gardiner said: “The world urgently needs to move from making climate pledges to taking climate action.
“This game-changing contract between Drax and MHI could contribute to a decade of global environmental leadership from the UK and provide further stimulus to a post-Covid economic recovery.”
The financials for bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) are improving amid firmer prices for UK power and carbon permits, but a government support mechanism would be needed for first-of-a-kind projects, Gardiner told Reuters.
“We think that the offshore wind contracts for difference (CfD) model is a very good one,” he added, highlighting the revenue certainty such a guaranteed price offered.
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