Wednesday 8th February 2012 10.47am
Post your Events Teesside industry works together to seek lower carbon future
Leading Process Industry Companies on Teesside have agreed to work together to determine the potential of an industrial Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) system. Working through NEPIC, the new industry led group will be known as PICCSI, the Process Industry Carbon Capture and Storage Initiative.
The Group has come together to progress the findings of influential studies by Tees Valley Unlimted and the North and South Tees Study, along with more recent work on an industrial CCS network. This work includes a conceptual engineering study for the Tees Valley completed by AMEC, as well as an economic assessment prepared by Element Energy & Carbon Counts. This detailed work was initiated as a result of the NEPIC Ten Point Plan and is funded by the Government and One North East supported Tees Valley Industrial Programme (TVIP).
Leading regional businesses which include AMEC, BOC, Growhow, Huntsman, Ineos Nitriles, Lucite, Sembcorp, SABIC & px Limited, along with a number of other companies, have agreed to work together to identify how a CCS system would work to benefit their businesses going forward, whilst at the same time supporting other regional anchor CCS power generation projects, including those at Alcan, Progressive Energy, B9 Coal or a gas fired power station option for Teesside.
Whilst in the UK the idea of Carbon Capture & Storage was initiated in order to develop clean coal fired power stations, it is the industrial cluster on Teesside which has identified that capturing carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) from big process industry factories could also have a big impact in the reduction in greenhouse gases which is being sought by the UK to comply with EU policy. Furthermore, if the cost to industry of a carbon taxation system increases, the process industries will need to cost effectively reduce their CO2 emissions in order to continue to be globally competitive.
This Teesside based consortium hopes to show that CCS is just as important to industrial producers of CO2 as it is to power generators and how it will be beneficial to link power generation CCS schemes to an industrial network, so that the cost of collection and disposal are shared. If appropriate actions are not taken, future emission trading scheme charges have the potential to adversely impact on Teesside's industrial future.
On the other hand, investment in an industrial CCS scheme, like that being promoted by the PICCSI group, will have the opposite effect and be a big attractant to future industry as emission charges will be minimized.
Such a CCS system will bring new opportunities, new technologies and new jobs to the region. For example, it has the potential of turning carbon dioxide emissions into a valuable commodity product, which might be used for improved oil extraction in the North Sea.
The PICCSI consortium hopes to win the opportunity for one of the earliest demonstrator projects for the UK economy to be based on Teesside. Teesside Industry is a high emitter of CO2 due to the large scale industries and power generators based here. The CO2 captured from the industry based on Teesside will have a significant impact on the UK's overall emission of green house gases.
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