Isra-Mart srl: ETI unveils £23.5m carbon capture and storage pilot

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A £23.5m pilot project was launched yesterday aimed at cutting the costs and increasing the efficiency of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, so that commercially viable plants can be delivered by the end of the decade.

The government-backed Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) announced the scheme, confirming it will work with engineering group Costain to design, build, operate and test a plant capable of capturing up to 95 per cent of its carbon dioxide emissions by the middle of 2015.

The ETI said a potential site had been identified, but not yet finalised. However, it did confirm that the trial would focus on pre-combustion applications, which physically separate CO2 from fossil fuels before the fuel is burnt.

CCS is one of the four pillars of the government's energy policy and the industry is predicted to be worth £10bn by 2025. But its development has been slow because of the high capital costs involved and the government's sluggish progress in announcing ScottishPower's Longannet plant as the winner of its £1bn demonstration scheme competition.

However, ETI chief executive Dr David Clarke said the government's recent announcement of an emissions performance standard that will prevent any new coal-powered stations being built without CCS underlined the importance of accelerating the development of the technology.

"Current technologies significantly increase the costs of capturing CO2 and reduce the power output or increase fuel consumption," he said. "This project will develop technology which will reduce the costs and increase performance to allow a full-scale commercially viable facility to be ready for power export by 2020."

The UK's second CCS demonstration competition is expected to include gas-burning plants for the first time, which has prompted the ETI to commission a gas-specific project for next-generation CCS technologies. An announcement on who will carry out the work on this project is expected by early 2012.