Biomass-to-electricity plants set for carbon capture retrofit

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Two large volume Greenhouse Gas Removals (GGR) facilities could be operational in north west England by 2030 after being retrofitted to biomass-to-electricity plants.

Render of carbon capture plant retrofitted onto existing Ince Biopower facility
Render of carbon capture plant retrofitted onto existing Ince Biopower facility - Evero

London-headquartered Evero Energy said two of its carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects have passed the ‘deliverability assessment’ in the government’s Hynet Track 1 expansion process, laying the foundation for the delivery of the GGRs.

Both projects are a retrofit of Carbon Capture and Storage on the existing Ince Biopower plant located near Ellesmere Port and the Mersey Bioenergy plant located near Widnes.

Evero said the plants process over 300,000 tonnes of locally sourced waste wood into electricity. With the addition of the CCS plants the assets will generate as much as 400,000 tons of Carbon Dioxide Removals (CDRs) per annum.

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In a statement, Simon Hicks, CEO of Evero, said “We’re delighted that the UK government has recognised the quality of our CCS projects. They are of long-term environmental importance to the UK’s commitment to meeting our Net Zero targets, removing over 400,000 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere per year once both plants are operational by 2030.

“Evero’s BECCS [Bio Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage] projects will prove that GGR from biomass is deliverable. Our approach is considered the most sustainable form of BECCS, through the use of locally sourced waste wood feedstock. It’s a process that can be repeated across all the UK’s waste wood fuelled renewable electricity plants, with a total CO2 removal potential of 3.6 million tons per annum.”

The UK government has a target of 5Mtpa of GGRs by 2030, and 23Mtpa from 2035.

Olivia Powis, CEO, Carbon Capture and Storage Association, said “It's fantastic news that Evero’s Ince and Mersey Greenhouse Gas Removal projects have passed the deliverability assessment. Evero’s projects hit an important milestone for the development of the GGR sector in the UK.

“We now need to see equal progress from the government on the Greenhouse Gas Removal business model, so that these such projects can be deployed at sufficient pace to contribute to the target of five million tons of GGRs by 2030."

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