The UK is on the brink of a transformation that will allow us to provide carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) facilities to industry here in the UK and help our European neighbours.
The Climate Change Committee has described the technology as a necessity for meeting net zero targets, with estimates that the industry could create up to 50,000 jobs across the UK by 2030.
CCUS involves capturing carbon dioxide (CO₂) prior to its release into the atmosphere, and transporting it to be stored underground, utilising existing voids created by oil and gas extraction.
Peel NRE believe that local branches will be a key part of the UK’s carbon capture network growth. Planning a joined-up network means that pipelines can be sited in appropriate locations and serve several users – rather than multiple separate pipelines for multiple businesses, all planned and built individually resulting in a hodgepodge of connections.
The cluster sequencing process
The previous government set out plans in the Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution to deploy CCUS in two industrial clusters by the mid-2020s, and a further two clusters by 2030. In the Northwest, leading hydrogen and carbon capture project HyNet has been identified as one of the first two clusters (known as a Track 1 industry cluster).
Eni, the proposed owner and operator of the new CO₂ transportation system, will take CO₂ captured from major industry across the region to be locked away in their almost-empty gas fields under the sea in Liverpool Bay.
Recently, Eni was granted a development consent order for the HyNet CO₂ Pipeline. The project involves constructing a new pipeline to transport CO₂ from the proposed hydrogen production site in Ellesmere Port and current industrial facilities in the North West of England and North Wales for offshore storage.
The other Track 1 cluster – the East Coast Cluster – led by the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP), the collaboration between BP, Equinor and TotalEnergies, is developing the common infrastructure needed to transport CO₂ from emitters across the Humber and Teesside to secure offshore storage in the Endurance aquifer in the Southern North Sea.
In 2023, eight projects were selected across the two clusters as the first carbon capture projects to be built under the CCUS Cluster Sequencing Process. These are sites that will connect to the carbon dioxide transport and storage infrastructure that will be developed through the initial Track 1 clusters.
The projects represent a wide variety of sectors from hydrogen, cement manufacturers and energy from waste. They will receive revenue support to cover the cost of operating with carbon capture, as well as in some cases, capital support from the Low Carbon Hydrogen Fund to cover some of the cost of installing capture equipment and connecting to the CO2 transport and storage network.
In July 2023, it was announced that the Acorn CCUS project in North East Scotland and Humber based Viking had been selected for Track 2 of the CCUS Cluster Sequencing Process. Following this in late 2023 it was announced that the HyNet Track 1 cluster would be expanded, with expressions of interest sought from businesses.
Since coming to power the Labour government has identified carbon capture as one of the technologies the publicly owned Great British Energy will seek to promote.
While no formal announcements have been made on whether the new government will continue with the cluster sequencing process, they have hit the ground running and seem keen to ensure that the delivery of vital infrastructure to reach net zero is not delayed.
Developing a local CO₂ network
At Peel NRE we have been developing plans for a local CO₂ transport pipeline which would connect our strategic energy and resource hub Protos in Cheshire into the HyNet CO₂ pipeline, establishing the development as one of the first carbon capture ready destinations in the UK. Our initial studies show this network could capture some 800,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year – equivalent to carbon sequestered by over 13 million tree seedlings grown for 10 years.
A planning application was submitted by Eni at the start of March 2024 for the Protos Carbon Dioxide Spur Pipeline, which will spur from the HyNet CO₂ pipeline and serve the various developments at Protos.
The pipeline would provide occupiers of Protos with a connection to the nearby HyNet regional pipeline. A secondary, smaller-scale network, it would connect directly to energy generators and capture their emissions.
Planning a joined-up network means we can site the pipelines in appropriate locations and serve several users – rather than multiple separate pipelines for multiple businesses, all planned and built individually resulting in a hodgepodge of connections.
Once of the first emitters to benefit from the spur pipeline will include the Protos Energy Recovery Facility currently under construction. Under Track 1 Encyclis is developing plans for a new Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) facility and recently signed a Statement of Principles with the UK Government’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, formalising the commercial basis for the development of the plant so that final negotiations can commence.
The proposed plant aims to capture an estimated 350,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually from the Protos Energy Recovery Facility (ERF). The CO₂ will then be transported via the Spur Pipeline to the Ince Above Ground Installation, where it will eventually be stored in depleted gas fields in Liverpool Bay.
Other users will include Evero’s Ince Bio Power site, a waste wood to energy facility located at Protos – which has applied for support under the Track 1 expansion. The site will have a direct line to HyNet to kick start their Greenhouse Gas Removal project, which would remove 220,000 tons of CO₂ from the atmosphere a year once operational by 2030.
We are looking to create one of the first carbon capture ready destinations in the UK, with surrounding development plots attracting new industries seeking to achieve net zero goals. There will be energy generators and carbon-emitting industries making key decisions on how they’ll operate in a net zero Britain, with the option to connect directly to an existing network taking the pain out of the decarbonisation challenge.
It’s the same story as many other sectors. Whilst the focus is, rightly, on the major national-scale projects, it’s often what’s happening at a local level that helps drive extended benefits. The seeds of making carbon capture a reality in the UK have already been sown. Now’s the time to make key decisions about how and where the industry will blossom.
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