Removing carbon not industries

The last few months have seen several positive developments that will contribute towards Drax’s ambition of becoming carbon negative by 2030

Governments, industries and societies have begun to set themselves targets for reaching net zero but it is at home in the UK where real progress is starting to be made in answering some of the tougher challenges posed by the climate crisis.

The UK’s 78% by 2035 decarbonisation target may have fazed some, but like many business leaders, I strongly believe that this legally-binding ambition can be the catalyst to deliver the innovative thinking needed to get the planet to where it needs to be.

I was delighted to learn recently that the UK Government has awarded the Zero Carbon Humber partnership ￡75 million in funding to develop world-leading net zero technologies. I believe that in a similar way to how renewables have made huge strides in helping decarbonise power, a range of new technologies are now needed to decarbonise industry and industrial regions.

Green growth

The Humber is the UK’s largest cluster by industrial emissions, emitting 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year – more than 2% of the UK’s total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Pioneering projects around technologies such as hydrogen production and negative emissions through bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) are all ready to scale in the region, beginning the task of reducing and removing emissions.

The potential benefit to the regional economy could also be significant – it’s estimated these technologies could create 48,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs in the Humber region by 2027.

This new ￡75 million in funding will allow work to gather pace on these transformational projects.

The funding will be used to obtain land rights and begin front-end engineering design (FEED) for the hydrogen facility at H2H Saltend, as well as onshore pipeline infrastructure for CO2 and hydrogen.

Carbon removal

Drax’s BECCS power generation is one of Zero Carbon Humber’s anchor projects. Our recently confirmed partnership with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) will see its carbon capture technology deployed at Drax Power Station. The negative emissions delivered through this agreement will enable the region to reduce its carbon footprint faster than any other UK cluster.

By 2030, Drax Power Station could remove eight million tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere each year, playing a major part in helping the UK meet its climate goals.

Failure to implement negative emissions through BECCS could also be costly. Time is of the essence for the UK to reach net zero by 2050 and research by energy consultancy Baringa, commissioned by Drax, highlights the economic cost of hesitation.

Global opportunities

I believe what we are developing at Drax can become a world-leading and exportable solution for large-scale carbon negative power generation. The potential from negative emissions is not just environmental but it will also have huge economic and regenerative benefits that will see the protecting of thousands of jobs in the UK’s carbon-intensive industries, as well as overseas.

BECCS offers great potential for the UK to export skills, knowledge and equipment to an international market.

To help establish this market we are working with engineering and construction project management firm Bechtel to explore locations globally where there is the opportunity to deploy BECCS and identify how new-build BECCS plants can be optimised to deliver negative emissions for those regions.

Read my latest article in full on the Drax website: Landmark moments on the path to a net zero UK