Following on from the UK announcement earlier this month of up to £20bn for CCUS in the UK, we welcome the announcement today of the CO2 sources selected for negotiations on support to capture their CO2 and supply it to the two Track 1 Clusters. Congratulations to the projects and companies selected.
Eight sources were selected from the government's shortlist, and these are:
For the HyNet cluster: Hanson Padeswood Cement Works Carbon Capture and Storage Project; Viridor Runcorn Industrial CCS; Protos Energy Recovery Facility; Buxton Lime Net Zero; HyNet Hydrogen Production Plant 1 (HPP1).
For the East Coast Cluster: Net Zero Teesside Power; bpH2Teesside; Teesside Hydrogen CO2 Capture.
The spectrum of the large point sources selected covers cement, waste to energy, hydrogen production and power, and signifies not only the versatility of CO2 capture across different industries but underscores how this technology is pivotal to achieving the UK's climate goals. Over the years IEAGHG has produced reports on conceptual CO2 capture from these industries, and we look forwards to the learnings and cost-reductions that will come from the detailed design, construction, and operation of these capture facilities in reality.
The UK government is also showing a way of designing CCS clusters from the start, rather than point-to-point projects or anchor-project-based clusters that we see elsewhere in the world, and with different business models for the different parts of the CCS value chain. These experiences will be useful to share internationally.
The UK has been a member of IEAGHG since the start in 1991, and IEAGHG looks forward to supporting the UK in CCS deployment and to sharing internationally the CCS knowledge gained. We will be bringing international experts to the UK this year for our Risk Management Network meeting in Edinburgh, the Offshore CCS Workshop in Aberdeen in September and our members meeting in the autumn. Great opportunities to showcase UK CCS to international audiences.
The government announcement can be seen at the GOV.uk website: Cluster sequencing Phase-2: project shortlist (power CCUS, hydrogen and ICC).
Tim Dixon and Abdul'Aziz Aliyu