UK energy-from-waste operator Enfinium is starting the first carbon capture and storage (CCS) pilot scheme in Wales – and it will be the first deployed in the wider HyNet industrial energy cluster.
In April, Enfinium will relocate the CCS pilot plant currently at its Ferrybridge-1 facility in West Yorkshire to Parc Adfer in Deeside Industrial Park. The pilot plant will be installed and operated by global clean tech company Kanadevia Inova.
The facility is a candidate for grant support through the UK government’s Track-1 HyNet Expansion programme and could accelerate economic growth and decarbonisation in North Wales subject to government approval in the coming months.
A new pilot plant will be installed at Ferrybridge by Nuada, a UK technology company scaling an innovative metal-organic framework (MOF) technology that captures carbon dioxide (CO2) from point sources through a vacuum swing process. This innovation has the potential to deliver significant efficiencies when deployed at commercial scale.
Both pilot projects will run for at least six months and form part of Enfinium’s broader ambition to deploy CCS across its six UK facilities, underpinned by investment to help achieve net zero emissions across the six sites.
UK non-departmental public body the Climate Change Committee is clear that the UK needs to deliver carbon removals to achieve a Net Zero economy and its recently published Seventh Carbon Budget states CCS is important for tackling process emissions, and should be targeting industrial subsectors with limited alternatives. It also stressed the need to push ahead with CO2 storage and pipelines.
Read more: Set up CO2 storage and build pipelines to deliver on UK CCS, urges report
With this Enfinium project, around 50% of the unrecyclable waste is made up of biogenic content including organic material such as waste food, plants and paper, which has already naturally absorbed CO2 from the atmosphere.
Installing CCS technology at an energy-from-waste facility enables this CO2 to be permanently captured and stored rather than released back into the atmosphere, resulting in net carbon removal.
The sector has the potential to deliver significant carbon removals to support the UK’s transition to a Net Zero economy. Recent analysis by the Climate Change Committee and independent UK research institute the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies found that the energy-from-waste sector could contribute between 5 and 8 million tonnes of carbon removals every year by 2050.
Mike Maudsley, CEO of Enfinium, said that to achieve Net Zero the UK needs to produce carbon removals at scale. “Energy from waste will play a critical role in delivering the millions of tonnes of durable carbon removals,” he said.
“By supporting the development of carbon capture technologies, we are advancing innovation in the UK while building our own understanding as we progress with our plans to deploy CCS across our six UK facilities.”
Bruno-Frédéric Baudouin, CEO of Kanadevia Innova, said that advancing carbon capture in the UK also advances public awareness of waste management infrastructure as a key driver of decarbonisation.
“This is what turns pilot projects into long-term Net Zero strategies at the national level,” he said.
“Through our partnership with Enfinium, we are helping to turn the UK into the poster child for carbon capture adoption worldwide,.”
Dr Conor Hamill, Co-CEO of Nuada, said it is scaling up capture technology that tackles the cost, energy, and integration challenges of incumbent solutions.
David Parkin, HyNet Alliance Director, said the pilot scheme was an essential part of the journey to demonstrate the efficacy of carbon capture.
