The UK’s first energy from waste carbon capture pilot is to be installed through a partnership between enfinium and Hitachi Zosen Inova, the green technology company. This pilot project will be located in West Yorkshire at the Ferrybridge-1 facility.

The plan is for the facility to use CCS technology that is supplied by HZI, who will scale it down so that it is a containerized version of the CCS technology that is used in energy from waste facilities on a commercial scale. Once operational, the unit at enfinium’s Ferrybridge-1 site, will be able to capture an estimated one ton of carbon dioxide every day. This system will be running for a minimum of twelve months and this will begin in July of 2024.

The purpose of this project is to create a facility that will demonstrate how carbon capture technology is effectively applied at energy from waste facilities and how it works effectively in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Furthermore, the pilot will be capable of testing and comparing different amine solvents, whilst simultaneously collecting realistic data around the facility’s performance. This data will include information on operations such as Co2 capture rate, energy consumption and finally, solvent degradation.

Alongside the benefits this pilot will bring to the carbon capture industry, the project also aligns with enfinium’s wider ambitions. These include their aim of leading an investment of up to £800 million in CCS, which the company aims to conduct at their Ferrybridge 1&2 facilities which, when combined, are able to capture more than 1.2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. Now that there is a plan for a CCS system to be installed, the UK’s largest energy from waste site, has the potential to become one of the largest carbon removal projects within Europe.

CEO of enfinium, Mike Maudsley, commented, “Installing carbon capture technology on energy from waste facilities is the only way the UK can decarbonise its unrecyclable waste. It also offers benefits including creating durable carbon removals, or negative emissions, at scale and generating reliable homegrown carbon negative power. This ground-breaking partnership with HZI will allow us to test multiple capture techniques that could in the future be deployed across our facilities at scale.”

CEO of HZI, Bruno-Frédéric Baudouin, mentioned, “It gives us tremendous pride that with the support of the UK authorities and thanks to a strong collaboration with enfinium, we have the opportunity to help move the dial on the nation’s decarbonisation of its waste management infrastructure. The pilot will contribute significantly to our carbon capture knowledge base, which we are developing across several projects in Europe, and represents an important step not only towards to reducing CO2 emissions in our industry, but also towards making CO2 circular and driving down demand for fossil resources globally.”