Developers of the Acorn CCS project have signed a deal with Uniper that could see emissions from a UK power station captured and shipped north for storage.
Partners behind the north east scheme – Storegga, Shell (LON:SHEL), Harbour Energy and North Sea Midstream Partners (NSMP) – confirmed the sigining of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for plans at the Grain power station on Thursday.
Uniper is developing proposals to retrofit post-combustion carbon capture technology on up to three units at the site – a 1.3GW combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plant, in the southeast of England, on the Isle of Grain.
The project could potentially capture over 2 million tonnes of CO2 per year.
The partnership will see the two consortia work to jointly develop a potential solution to ship captured CO2 from Grain to Peterhead Port, and then onto the Acorn transportation and storage (T&S) network, which can then pipe the CO2 to permanent storage 2.5km below the seabed in the North Sea using re-purposed gas pipelines.
As part of their plans, Uniper are seeking to use existing jetty infrastructure near Grain to load the ships with captured CO2 and ship it from Kent to Scotland.
The joint project would contribute to the UK Government’s CCUS (Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage) Cluster Sequencing Track-2 ambitions. To do this, Uniper and Acorn plan to collaborate to develop technical, commercial, and regulatory proposals to enable shipment of CO2 within this timeframe.
Uniper UK country chairman and group chief commercial officer for power, Mike Lockett said: “Retrofitting carbon capture technology at Grain – one of the most efficient gas plants in our fleet, will remove millions of tonnes of CO2 during the electricity generation process, whilst still providing flexible and reliable power to the UK’s energy system.
“The MoU Uniper has signed with the Acorn project partners, is a significant step in helping to identify a solution to ship captured CO2 for permanent offshore storage. This is also an important step for the many other emitters across the UK who want and need to decarbonise their essential industrial processes, but require a flexible CO2 transport and storage solution to achieve this.”
Speaking on behalf of Acorn, Storegga chief commercial officer Steve Murphy added: “Acorn, as part of the Scottish Cluster, has the potential to help decarbonise not only Scotland, but the UK and beyond.
“This MoU with Uniper is a great example of how our large storage capacity and transport network can decarbonise beyond Scotland, while creating and safeguarding jobs and helping to build a low carbon economy across the UK.”
The Acorn T&S system, forms part of the larger Scottish Cluster, one of the main pathways identified for decarbonising Scottish industry.
In July 2023, Acorn was recognised as one of two T&S systems best placed to meet the Track 2 criteria and support the delivery of the UK Government’s commitment to capture and store 20-30 million tonnes of CO2 by 2030.
Recommended for you
