Tata Plans UK's First Large Carbon Capture Plant
Tata Chemicals Europe (TCE) announced June 27 plans to build the UK’s first industrial-scale carbon capture plant.
The facility will capture CO2 from TCE’s 96-MW gas-fired combined heat and power plant in Northwich, Cheshire. The gas will then be processed and liquefied for use in the manufacture of sodium bicarbonate, the company said in a statement.
TCE expects to extract around 40,000 mt/y of CO2 from flue gases. That will reduce the power plant’s emissions by 11%.
Launch of the £16.7mn ($21mn) facility is planned for 2021. It will benefit from a £4.2mn government grant. The UK parliament passed a bill on June 24 committing the country to a target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050, making it the world's first major economy to do so. In all, nine plants have secured £26mn of government funding, in addition to industry backing, to advance the rollout of carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) in the UK.
"We hope that this project will demonstrate the viability of CCU and pave the way for further applications of the technology to support the decarbonization of industrial activity," TCE's managing director Martin Ashcroft said.