‘The world urgently needs to move from making climate pledges to taking climate action…’
The UK is set to become home to the world’s largest negative emissions power generation facility, following the signing of an agreement between Drax Group and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engineering, part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Group.
The agreement will see Drax use MHI’s Advanced KM CDR carbon capture process which includes the company’s proprietary carbon capture solvent KS-21 to capture carbon dioxide at the Drax power station in North Yorkshire, UK.
Currently Drax is the largest decarbonisation project in Europe, having converted its power station to use sustainable biomass instead of coal leading to a reduction in emissions of more than 85%. The company has said that by deploying bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) technology, it aims to become carbon negative by 2030. The first BECCS unit at Drax could be operational by 2027, capturing and storing at least 8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year by 2030.
Drax is said to be the first company in the UK to sign a contract to deploy carbon capture at scale. The project combines MHI technology with offshore geological storage under the North Sea.
As part of the agreement, MHI intends to locate its core CCS team at its European Headquarters in London. The company is also looking at ways to strengthen its supply chain, including the possibility of producing its proprietary solvent in the UK.
Drax Group Chief Executive Officer, 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.’
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