SSE to develop CO2-capture facility

Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) is seeking consent to develop the UK’s largest carbon-dioxide-capture trial facility at its Ferrybridge coal-fired power station near Castleford in Yorkshire.

The £21m project is hoped to demonstrate the carbon-dioxide-capture element of carbon-capture and storage (CCS) technology. Trials will be jointly undertaken with a consortium of partners, including Renfrew-based steam-generator suppliers, Doosan Babcock.

The trials are due to begin in 2011 and will run through to the end of 2012. According to SSE, the facility will produce 100 tonnes of carbon dioxide per day - equivalent to 5MW of coal-fired power-generating capacity.

The group hopes that the project will bridge the gap between laboratory-scale trials currently underway and the larger-scale projects envisaged by the government, by demonstrating the operational characteristics of a capture plant at a full-scale power station.

Ian Marchant, chief executive of SSE, said: ‘Most people agree that the UK’s current portfolio of coal-fired power stations still have a crucial role to play in keeping the country’s lights on, but that role will have to alter if climate-change targets are to be met.