The Teesside Low Carbon Consortium welcomes the Launch
of the UK CCS Commercialisation Programme
The launch of the UK Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Commercialisation Programme by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has been welcomed by a consortium aiming to build the first CCS project on Teesside.
Teesside Low Carbon – a consortium formed of BOC, International Power, Premier Oil and Progressive Energy – is planning to bid for funding to develop a CCS project which would form the anchor for the development of a power and industrial CCS cluster in Teesside and the wider North East of England.
The project, to be built on the Wilton site, an industrial complex in Teesside, would provide sufficient low carbon electricity for over half a million households as well as enable vital carbon capture infrastructure for key industrial emitters of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the region. The majority of the CO2 emitted by the plant would be transported by pipeline to secure, long-term storage under the North Sea.
The project would create around 250 direct jobs with a workforce of over 1,000 involved in its construction over a four-year period.
Peter Whitton, Progressive Energy’s Managing Director said: “We welcome the launch of the UK Government’s CCS Commercialisation Programme and the opportunity it presents to help deliver this innovative clean energy project for Teesside. This Programme recognises the value CCS has to play in delivering a low carbon economy for the UK.
Teesside Low Carbon will safeguard and create jobs in the industrial heartland of the North East of England, driving investment and growth in the region and the UK as a whole.
The UK is uniquely placed in Europe to capitalise on the opportunities provided by carbon capture and storage. We look forward to taking this innovative project forward and securing the many benefits it will bring to Teesside.”
About Teesside Low Carbon
Teesside Low Carbon, formerly the Eston Grange Project, is a Carbon Capture and Storage Project which has been under development by Progressive Energy since 2006. It would form the anchor which would enable CCS infrastructure to be created for the benefit of industry on Teesside and the wider North East. The Project is being developed by a Consortium of major multinational companies comprising BOC, International Power, Premier Oil and Progressive Energy.
BOC and its parent The Linde Group plan to construct a new facility to convert coal into both a hydrogen-rich synthesis gas (syngas) and CO2 using established chemical processes. Under the plans, around 2.3mte CO2/yr would be separated, compressed and piped a short distance to a booster station near the shoreline. The CO2 would enter a new pipeline for transportation to a depleted oil field in the central North Sea where it will be injected for permanent storage. Some CO2 would also be injected and stored in a saline aquifer to provide substantial future storage capacity and diversity. The storage function would be undertaken by Premier Oil and Progressive Energy who between them hold licences on depleted oil fields and the aquifer. Delivery of CO2 from the wider cluster into the Central North Sea provides the opportunity to extract otherwise unrecoverable oil.
The low carbon hydrogen-rich syngas would be available for industrial users at Teesside and used for power generation. The primary user of this ‘decarbonised’ syngas would be a new high efficiency Combined Cycle Gas Turbine to be constructed by International Power on the site of the existing Teesside Power Station.
Teesside Low Carbon is one of the remaining projects considered for funding in the NER300 process, and is well placed to benefit from the UK’s CCS Commercialisation Programme. The timescale for the project is dependent on these Programmes; however it is expected that, subject to suitable support funding and risk management, an investment decision would be made before the end of 2013 and the project would begin CO2 storage in 2016.
The Project would create around 250 jobs directly with more than 1,000 involved in the project construction for four years. Around 28,000 jobs are associated with the chemical industry on Teesside and the CO2 infrastructure created by this project would provide an option, in some cases the only option, for these companies to decarbonise their operations avoiding the increasing costs of carbon emissions which in some cases threatens their continued viability.
