Negative emissions pioneer Drax announces new CCUS projects during Energy Minister’s visit

• Cleantech companies Econic Technologies and Deep Branch Biotechnology are the latest businesses to begin work with world-leader in negative emissions, Drax Group.
• The projects have the potential to use carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) technologies to enable other sectors to decarbonise, making a significant contribution to UK efforts to address the climate emergency.
• UK Minister of State for Business, Energy and Clean Growth, Kwasi Kwarteng, visited Drax to hear more about its ambitious plan to become carbon negative by 2030 using ground-breaking bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) technology – and met with some of the businesses it is working with on CCUS.

Negative emissions pioneer, Drax Group is continuing to develop ground-breaking carbon capture technologies through new partnerships and pilot projects, putting UK businesses at the forefront of efforts to tackle the climate crisis.

Drax has announced a new partnership with cleantech company Econic Technologies to explore the potential for using captured carbon dioxide from its biomass power generation to displace oil in the production of plastic products, using its pioneering catalyst technology.

The partnership marks a major step towards enabling other businesses, including in the automotive, consumer and construction sectors, to produce more sustainable polyurethane products. Econic’s catalyst technology could save as much as the equivalent of four million petrol cars’ worth of CO₂ per year in this first market alone.

A new pilot plant has also been installed at the power station in North Yorkshire, by Deep Branch Biotechnology to explore the feasibility of using Drax’s CO₂ emissions to make proteins for sustainable animal feed products – technology which could enable the agricultural sector to decarbonise.

The Rt Hon Kwasi Kwarteng MP, UK Minister of State for Business, Energy and Clean Growth visited the CCUS Incubation Hub at Drax Power Station, to see for himself the pioneering work taking place.

Drax was the first company in the world to announce an ambition to be carbon negative by 2030 when CEO Will Gardiner spoke at COP 25 in Madrid. By applying BECCS technology to its biomass generating units Drax would remove more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it produces across the whole of its operations, creating a negative carbon footprint for the company.

Will Gardiner, Drax Group CEO said:
“Drax’s ambition is to be carbon negative by 2030.? Having pioneered the use of sustainable biomass, Drax now produces 12% of the UK’s renewable electricity. With the right negative emissions policy for BECCS, we can do much more, removing millions of tonnes of emissions from the atmosphere each year.

“By working with innovative tech companies like Econic and Deep Branch Biotechnology, we are exploring new opportunities for clean growth, which could be critical not only for beating the climate crisis, but also in enabling a just transition, protecting jobs across the North – delivering for the economy and the environment.”

Econic Technologies will test the CO₂ being captured from Drax’s successful one tonne a day BECCS pilot at its own industrial pilot facility, to assess its suitability for producing polymers used in polyurethane plastics.

Leigh Taylor from Econic Technologies discussing the polyurethane products made using waste CO2 with Kwasi Kwarteng MP and Jason Shipstone, Drax VP Innovation

Source: Drax, press release, 2020-01-30.