Ferrybridge post-combustion project
Brief description:
Facts:
Main developer:
Ferrybridge power station, Yorkshire
In March 2010, Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) was awarded UK government funding of £6.3 million towards trialling capture technology at its Ferrybridge coal-fired power station in West Yorkshire. The pilot plant became operational in November 2011 and the test programme will run through to and during 2013.
The project aims to test amine-based post combustion capture technology under realistic conditions i.e. at an operating power plant, and aims to speed development of the technology at commercial scale. SSE’s project partners are Doosan Babcock and Vattenfall, with capture technology being supplied by Canada's HTC Purenergy. It is the largest capture facility of its type operating in the UK as of early 2013, and is currently capturing at a 90% rate.
SSE originally announced in June 2006 its intention to install “clean coal” technology at Ferrybridge, in partnership with Mitsui Babcock, Siemens and UK Coal, on a new 500MW supercritical boiler, which was later upgraded to plans for an 800MW capacity. Ferrybridge is currently a 1995MW combined coal power plant.
The pilot plant CCPilot 100+ has been designed and built by Doosan, and is collecting around 100 tonnes of CO2 per day from a flue gas slipstream corresponding to about 5MW of electric power. The technology uses an amine solvent that will be recycled after the CO2 has been extracted.
Results from the trial were intended to guide Vattenfall's Jänschwalde CCS demo in Germany. However, this project has now been cancelled.
Financing
The partners are investing a total of £21m, with £6.3m coming from the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change, the Technology Strategy Board and Northern Way. The proposed new supercritical plant is expected to cost SSE £250m, while the carbon capture equipment is estimated to require funding of around £100m, if deployed.
Timing
The pilot plant started up in November 2011, becoming the largest carbon capture pilot of its size to be integrated into an operating plant in the UK.
North East CCS transport network
CO2Sense, a company of development agency Yorkshire Forward, is developing plans for an open, shared CO2 transport and storage network within the Yorkshire and Humber region. This would provide the transport and storage solution for regional projects such as Ferrybridge. See the project page for more details.
More information and press releases
DECC case study, Ferrybridge, 28 January 2013
GCCSI takes a tour of pilot plant, March 2012
HTC Purenergy technology used at Ferrybridge, January 2012
SSE press release, November 2011
Pilot plant opened by Energy Secretary Chris Huhne, November 2011
Vattenfall press release, 17 March 2010
Contact info
Main developer: