enfinium owns an energy from waste facility, called Ferrybridge-1 and this facility is located in Yorkshire. Currently this facility is capturing one tonne of CO2 emissions from the plant’s operations, on a daily basis.

It was in July that the Climate Change Committee’s Progress Report mentioned that the UK needs to accelerate the production of carbon removals in order to stay on track with their goal to achieve Net Zero. On top of this, research that was performed by the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, discovered that the energy from waste sector, has the potential to contribute an estimated eight million tonnes of carbon removals.

The technology which is making this operational facility possible is a containerised, scaled-down version of the CCS solution which enfinium has the potential and ability to deploy throughout all of its sites. This particular piece of technology was supplied to the project by Hitachi Zosen Inova (HZI), a global green technology company.

A key interest behind deploying CCS at energy from waste facilities, is that it generates durable carbon removals, which are also known as ‘negative emissions.’ This is due to the fact that an estimated 50% of the unrecyclable waste which is produced by society is created out of biogenic content and this is made up of organic material. For example, waste food, plants and paper. All of these examples have already naturally absorbed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This means that installing CCS technology at an energy from waste facility makes it possible for the CO2 to be captured and stored, instead of it being released into the atmosphere again. Performing this action results in a net carbon removal from the atmosphere.

Currently, the trial is underway and it will take place for twelve months, which will fulfil its purpose of demonstrating how the technology can be applied at scale across enfinium’s fleet. This fleet consists of six energy from waste facilities, with the aim of removing CO2 from the atmosphere. Right now, the pilot is collecting real operational data on performance and this includes statistics on CO2 capture rate, as well as solvent degradation and on top of this, it will also assess the performance of different amine solvents.

It was earlier this year when enfinium announced it Net Zero Transition Plan which involved its plan to decarbonise its own operations and also deliver an estimated 1.2 million tonnes of carbon removals every year in the 20230s. To make this possible, the company is supporting this plan with an investment programme of up to £1.7 billion. Plus this plan comes with a direct focus on investing in carbon capture and storage technology throughout its energy from waste facilities which work to deliver carbon removals at scale. The whole purpose of this set up is to aid and inform any future deployment and operation of CCS technology that may occur for any of the company’s sites.

CEO of enfinium, Mike Maudsley, commented, “We are proud to have this sector-leading project up and running at our Ferrybridge facility. Carbon capture and storage technology is central to how the UK will be able to decarbonise its unrecyclable waste. CCS is also a critical to generating carbon removals at scale so the UK can achieve Net Zero. Using carbon capture, the energy from waste sector can provide significant levels of carbon removals and enfinium, with the support of HZI, are taking steps now to achieve this.”

CEO of HZI, Bruno-Frédéric Baudouin, added, “Working with enfinium to deliver the UK’s first carbon capture pilot at an energy from waste facility is an exciting project. The operational pilot demonstrates our capability to deliver vital decarbonising infrastructure for the waste sector that is critical to the industry’s Net Zero ambitions. The project will meaningfully expand our carbon capture knowledge base and provide a springboard for delivering decarbonisation solutions worldwide. Our vision is to enhance decarbonisation, circularity and supply security for present and future generations, and this project embodies perfectly what we are striving for.”

Carbon Capture and Storage Association CEO, Olivia Powis, mentioned, “The launch of CCS at Ferrybridge is very exciting to see. With millions of tonnes of unrecyclable waste produced by the UK, this is an important demonstration of the use of CCS to generate clean power via energy from waste, as well as providing a future route to establishing the UK’s greenhouse gas removal market and enfinium have taken a landmark step with its delivery. Through projects such as the one at Ferrybridge, the UK will be able to meet the clean power by 2030 target.”