The Challenges Facing Carbon Capture And Storage

The UK government has confirmed funding to take two Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) demonstration projects to the next stage of development. For the Peterhead project in Aberdeenshire and the White Rose project in Yorkshire, the next step is "Front End Engineering and Design" (FEED), leading to full-scale and integrated projects which aim to prove the technology and also the business and regulatory models required to deliver a cost-competitive CCS industry by the 2020s. However, significant legal and economic challenges remain, both at project and industry level.

Project level challenges

The White Rose project in Yorkshire involves the construction and commissioning of a new 426MW (Gross) coal-fired power plant with the ability to co-fire biomass. The new plant is to be fully equipped with oxfuel combustion technology and would aim to capture approximately 90 per cent of its annual CO2 emissions.