Drax, Mitsubishi to build mega carbon capture power project in UK
Carbon capture technologies like BECCS will play a crucial role in the fight against the climate crisis.
Drax Group (a British electrical power generation company) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engineering, Ltd. (a part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Group), have agreed for Drax to use MHI’s carbon capture technology, the Advanced KM CDR process™.
Drax license MHI’s unique carbon capture solvent, KS-21™, to capture CO2 at its power station near Selby, North Yorkshire. This would be the world largest deployment of negative emissions in power generation. Drax has already kickstarted the planning process to deploy BECCS at the site, and the work on building BECCS can start by 2024.
Drax converted its power station to use sustainable biomass, replacing coal, which cut its emissions by over 85%, while using BECCS technology, which would make the Drax operation carbon negative by 2030.
It is expected that the first BECCS unit at Drax come online by 2027 and capturing and storing about 8 million tonnes/year of CO2 by 2030.
This would be the first time that a carbon capture technology is used at scale in the UK. The project would use offshore geological storage under the North Sea.
MHI is also looking at ways to strengthen its supply chain, including the potential production of its proprietary solvent in the UK.
Drax has already successfully trialled MHI’s carbon capture technology in a pilot in 2020 to test two of MHI’s proprietary solvents (KS-1™ and KS-21™).
Will Gardiner, Drax Group CEO, said, “The world urgently needs to move from making climate pledges to taking climate action.”
He further added, “Subject to the right regulatory framework being in place, Drax stands ready to invest further in this essential negative emissions technology, which not only permanently removes CO2 from the atmosphere but also delivers the reliable, renewable electricity needed for clean, green economic growth.”
Kenji Terasawa, President & CEO, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engineering, said, “We firmly believe that our carbon capture technology will make a significant contribution to the UK and wider global community achieving their net-zero targets.”
