Capturing the carbon to make “carbon negative” – UK government’s $2.5 Billion bet on Drax.

UK government approves $2.5B project for ‘carbon negative’ power plant in Drax Power station in North Yorkshire, in the north of England.

• Drax, the power station in Yorkshire, which produces around 4% of the UK’s power, mostly burns biomass imported from North America.

• Originally intended to run six producing units using low-sulfur coal from the adjacent Selby coalfield, Drax was the last coal-fired power station constructed in the United Kingdom. Each unit can produce 660 MW, for a total capacity of little less than 4 GW.

• The plant will become “carbon negative”—that is, able to remove more carbon pollution from the environment than it produces while burning biomass—when carbon capture units are added. This process is known as “bioenergy with carbon capture and storage,” or BECCS. To know more on BECCS, click here.
• After then, the carbon would be kept underground in the North Sea to keep it from contributing to global warming.

Projects such as these augur big business for the biomass power sector! More details on this from here.

India has a lot of opportunities for BECCS because of its abundant and varied biomass supplies, rising energy and fuel use, and dedication to combating climate change.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that by 2050, India may generate up to 45 million tons of oil equivalent (Mtoe) of biofuels and biohydrogen, which when paired with carbon capture and storage could result in zero emissions. Additionally, India has several planned and implemented initiatives to boost BECCS.

Additional global projects utilizing BECCS technology:

• Stockholm BECCS, Sweden.
• ADM BECCS, Illinois, US.

Additionally, Denmark and Norway have projects developing BECCS with the aim of achieving negative emissions.