- Agreement combines pioneering UK innovation and Japanese technology with the potential to deliver the largest deployment of negative emissions in power generation anywhere in the world, supporting the UK government's ambitious target to reduce carbon emissions and enabling clean growth and green jobs. - Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) at Drax can enable the renewable energy company to become carbon negative by 2030 - permanently removing more CO2 from the atmosphere than is emitted across its operations. - Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to develop new centre of excellence for Carbon Capture and Underground Storage (CCUS) in London as well as looking at ways to strengthen its supply chain, including the potential production of its proprietary solvent in the UK.
Auto and Tech | Drax and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Sign a Ground-Breaking Agreement to Deliver the World’s Largest Negative Emissions Project | TOKYO, via JCN Newswire, June 10, 2021 – Drax Group and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engineering, Ltd., a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Group, have reached an agreement for Drax to use its carbon capture technology, the Advanced KM CDR processTM, in what would be the world’s largest deployment of negative emissions in power generation.
Drax will license MHI’s unique carbon capture solvent, KS-21TM, to capture CO2 at its power station near Selby, North Yorkshire, under the contract, which combines UK invention and world-leading Japanese technology.
Drax is already Europe’s largest decarbonisation project, having transformed its power station to run on sustainable biomass rather than coal, resulting in an 85 percent reduction in emissions. Drax hopes to go even further by implementing BECCS technology, with the goal of becoming carbon zero by 2030. The first BECCS unit at Drax may be operational by 2027, sustaining thousands of employment in the North of England by 2024, and capturing and storing at least 8 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2030.
Drax is the first company in the UK to sign a contract for large-scale carbon capture deployment. The project combines MHI’s proven and world-leading technology with offshore geological storage under the North Sea, assisting the UK in meeting its target of reducing carbon emissions by 78 percent by 2035 and demonstrating global climate leadership ahead of the G7 summit in Cornwall this weekend and the COP26 conference in Glasgow in November.
MHI intends to place its core CCS team in the company’s European headquarters in London as part of the deal, and to seek more job opportunities in the UK in the future. MHI is also considering measures to tighten its supply chain, such as the possibility of producing its proprietary solvent in the United Kingdom.
MHI’s carbon capture technology has previously been successfully tested by Drax in a pilot that began in 2020 to test two of MHI’s patented solvents (KS-1TM and KS-21TM).
Drax Group CEO Will Gardiner said: “The world must immediately transition from climate commitments to climate action. This game-changing agreement between Drax and MHI might help the UK maintain its worldwide environmental leadership for the next decade while also providing additional stimulus to the post-Covid economic recovery.
“Carbon capture technologies, such as BECCS, will be critical in the fight against climate change. Drax is ready to invest more in this critical negative emissions technology, which not only permanently removes CO2 from the atmosphere but also provides the reliable, renewable electricity needed for clean, green economic growth, if the correct legislative framework is in place.”
President and CEO of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engineering, Kenji Terasawa, said: “We are honored to have been chosen as Drax’s technological partner, and we are confident that our carbon capture technology will help the UK and the rest of the world achieve their net zero goals. We’re excited to expand our presence in the UK and establish a center of expertise for carbon capture technology deployment across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
“MHI wants to continue lowering greenhouse gas emissions globally by providing reliable and cost-effective carbon capture technology, backed by 30 years of research & development and commercial experience around the world.”
BECCS may be deployed at Drax as soon as 2027, producing the UK’s largest carbon capture project and permanently eliminating millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year, if the government implements an effective negative emissions policy and funding framework.
Drax has already begun the planning process for deploying BECCS at its power station in North Yorkshire; if successful, construction on BECCS at Drax may begin as early as 2024, creating thousands of employment.
