Carbon capture projects given £26m funding boost

The awards were announced by energy minister Chris Skidmore during a visit to Tata Chemicals Europe’s (TCE) plant in Winnington, Cheshire. The plant, Britain’s sole manufacturer of soda ash and sodium bicarbonate, is being awarded £4.2m toward the construction of a facility to capture and utilise 40,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.

TCE said its plant will capture carbon dioxide from the flue gases of its 96MWe gas-fired combined heat and power plant, which supplies steam and power to the company’s Northwich operations and other local businesses.  The CCU plant will then purify and liquify the gas for use directly in the manufacture of sodium bicarbonate.

“Implementing this industry leading project, with such strong environmental and operational benefits is hugely exciting,” said TCE MD, Martin Ashcroft. “We hope that this project will demonstrate the viability of CCU and pave the way for further applications of the technology to support the decarbonisation of industrial activity.”