A chemical plant in Cheshire will begin capturing carbon dioxide on an industrial scale from energy production in what is described as the first major use in the UK of technology to reduce emissions.
Tata Chemicals Europe (TCE) hopes to capture 40,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases a year, reducing its annual emissions by 10% and ensuring a supply of high-purity carbon dioxide that can be used in products ranging from glass and detergents to pharmaceuticals. products and foods.
Carbon capture is considered by the United Kingdom’s Climate Change Committee as an important part of the net zero carbon plan in society. It can be particularly useful for “difficult to reduce” industrial sectors such as steel, cement or chemicals, whose need for very high temperatures makes it difficult to rely on electricity. However, some scientists doubt that the technology will be created on a sufficient scale in time to prevent catastrophic global warming.
The TCE plant tests the technology and guarantees the purity of the produced carbon dioxide for 10 months, but is now ready to start full operation. There has been a shortage of dietary carbon dioxide in the UK in recent months.
Carbon dioxide is produced by the thermal power plant, which it uses to produce chemicals, including sodium carbonate, salt and sodium bicarbonate, at the Northwich plant. The company, which is owned by Indian conglomerate Tata, said it plans to export the sodium bicarbonate produced by the captured gas to be used in hemodialysis to treat people living with kidney disease.
TCE has reduced its carbon intensity – a measure of the amount of carbon produced in its processes – by 50% compared to 2000 and aims to reach 80% by 2030.
The government provided a £ 4.2 million grant for the £ 20 million project. The project will be a precursor to larger carbon capture developments in the north of England, which have been selected for funding by the UK government, provided they can prove their worth of money.
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These projects, the East Coast cluster around Humber and Teesside and HyNet North Westin Liverpool Bay, are backed by major oil companies hoping to capture carbon and store it underground. Successful carbon storage can also allow them to continue to drill profitable but polluting oil.
Martin Ashcroft, managing director of TCE, said it was “an important step in our journey to reduce carbon emissions”.
“Completing the carbon capture and recovery demonstration facility allows us to reduce our carbon emissions while ensuring a high-purity supply of carbon dioxide, a critical raw material that helps us increase exports of our pharmaceutical-grade products worldwide,” he said.
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