This investment will include taking on the engineering and construction services of industrial project expert Worley, which will begin the Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) work for the project at the start of 2022 – potentially working with Drax on design and build phases.
Commenting on the agreement, Chris Ashton, CEO, Worley, said, “Our partnership with Drax is one of the ways we’re helping our customers adapt existing assets and decarbonise industrial clusters, whilst also supporting Worley’s strategic focus on sustainability and delivering a more sustainable world.”
Ahead of the development, Drax is set to relocate and decommission work to make space for the BECCS project, the technology for which will help Drax capture and store at least eight million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year.
Regarded as Europe’s largest decarbonisation project, Drax’s BECCS project is calculated to surpass the government’s ambition to deliver five million tonnes of negative emissions from engineered removals each year by 2030.
Stating that it’s ‘no longer enough’ to reduce emissions, Will Gardiner, CEO, Drax, added, “The world has got to start removing carbon from the atmosphere if we are to avert this climate crisis.”
The partnership with Worley follows Drax joining forces with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Group earlier in the year.
With the project scheduled to start potentially as early as 2027, North Yorkshire’s industrial sector could see the widespread investment creating jobs and contracts worth ‘hundreds of millions of pounds.’