NEWS & INSIGHTS

C-Capture response to BECCS report for BEIS

C-Capture welcomes the report “Analysing the potential of bioenergy with carbon capture in the UK to 2050” from Ricardo Energy and Environment, commissioned by BEIS.

Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) offers great potential for achieving net-zero. It is widely recognised that it will be both difficult and costly to achieve goals laid out under the Paris Agreement without using this vital negative emissions technology.

C-Capture’s BECCS pilot at Drax power station was the world’s first. C-Capture’s innovative solvent is well suited to capturing CO2 from biomass-derived flue gas; it is resistant to oxidation, has a lower energy requirement than other commercially available technologies, and has a lower environmental impact due to reduced emissions. C-Capture continues to work closely with Drax as we answer the questions necessary to scale up our award winning technology.

It is recognised in this report that post-combustion capture, based on amines or other innovative solvents such as that developed by C-Capture, is the most likely technology to be commercially available for BECCS in the next decade. Despite this, significant challenges and barriers exist to the large scale deployment of BECCS in the UK. These include financial, regulatory and policy, environmental and supply chain issues. Ongoing development of our technology will help to overcome these barriers, including a reduction in costs and life cycle emissions. Regulatory mechanisms to encourage financing and implementation of carbon capture technologies will help stimulate deployment and enable opportunities for demonstration of C-Capture’s technology at scale.

C-Capture’s CEO Tom White said “Whilst many barriers exist to the large scale deployment of BECCS, we can and we must overcome them. C-Capture’s vision is to create the most energy efficient carbon capture technology in the world for large scale projects. We now need regulatory certainty to drive investment into development and deployment, so the CCS community can work together to with industrial emitters and the power generation sector to overcome these barriers and end the UK’s contribution to climate change”.