Announced today (17th June), the partnership aims to advance the UK’s energy transition by further developing carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) within the country.
The BECCS project will capture carbon from Drax’s biomass power station located in Selby in North Yorkshire.
Capable of providing the most renewable power of any single location in the UK, the plant uses biomass pellets which is claims reduces carbon emissions by 80% compared to coal.
By sourcing up to 80% of the materials and services for the project from British business, Drax stated that it intends to protect and create thousands of jobs, helping to level up the North.
“We are excited to be partnering with British Steel as we continue to progress our world-leading UK BECCS project,” said Will Gardiner, CEO, Drax Group.
“We aim to invest billions of pounds, create tens of thousands of jobs and have BECCS operational in the UK by 2030, provided that the UK Government has in place policies to support the feasibility and delivery of negative emissions technologies.”
BECCS removes harmful CO2 from the atmosphere whilst also generating renewable electricity.
The project will utilise around 13,000 tonnes of steel for the project, including beams produced at British Steel’s Scunthorpe and Teesside steel works.
The notoriously hard-to-abate steel sector is responsible for around 8% of global CO2 emissions.
Although its process is not yet ‘green’, British Steel has stated that it is planning to use green hydrogen to help meet net zero targets.
“We’re already making progress in our own decarbonisation journey, with our plans to use green hydrogen and our commitment to be net zero by 2050,” commented Allan Bell, Chief Commercial and Procurement Office, British Steel.
“There are real synergies between what we’re trying to achieve and Drax’s ambitions with BECCS, which we hope to build on through this partnership, putting the UK and the North of England on the world map.”
Providing that the UK Government moves on with its CCS cluster programme, Drax’s BECCS project could become the world’s largest project of its kind, capturing 8m tonnes of CO2 per year from 2030.