UK carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology took a major step forward as Ener ...

UK carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology took a major step forward as Energy Secretary Chris Huhne launched a flagship test programme in Yorkshire at the end of November. The project - worth more than £20mn - is a partnership between industry partners Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), Doosan Power Systems and Vattenfall, and is supported by the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), the Technology Strategy Board and Northern Way. The equivalent of up 100 t/d of carbon emissions will be captured from SSE’s Ferrybridge coal-fired power station. Launching the CCPilot 100+ project, Huhne said: ‘This flagship test programme at Ferrybridge represents an important milestone in the UK’s plans to develop CCS and provides a critical bridge to meeting our long-term aim of cost competitive CCS deployment by the 2020s. This is the first operating carbon capture plant attached to a power station at this scale in the UK and has benefited from more than £6mn in public money. This investment will be invaluable to the wider commercial scale deployment of CCS by reducing uncertainty, driving down costs and developing the UK supply chain and skills.’ The project is part of a £12mn government-led CCS research and development programme which will run between 2011 and 2015.