Pioneering negative emissions project presented at national waste to energy conference

An overview of the pioneering Ince Bio Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage (InBECCS) project is being presented at the new national waste to energy and biomass conference titled Operational Optimisation which is taking place in Birmingham today (28 April 2022).

A joint presentation by leading energy-from-waste provider, Bioenergy Infrastructure Group (BIG) and C-Capture – developers of world-leading, next-generation carbon capture technology, will provide an update on the progress, implementation and technology of InBECCS, which aims to be the first negative emissions project in the North West of England.

The presentation will form part of the carbon capture and storage section of the conference’s programme which is aimed at supporting energy from waste and biomass operators to future-proof their plants including the increasing need for decarbonisation.

The innovative InBECCS project was announced in May last year when BIG – who have one of the UK’s largest portfolios of biomass and waste to energy facilities – and Peel NRE – part of Peel L&P – secured £250,000 from the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy’s (BEIS) Net Zero Innovation Portfolio. The funding supported phase one of the project to design a carbon capture demonstration facility – based on C-Capture’s unique carbon capture technology. The project is based at BIG’s Ince Bio Power facility: the largest waste wood gasification plant in the UK. The plant uses commercial waste wood – which would otherwise go to landfill – to produce energy that powers over 42,500 homes. An application for phase two of the project has now been submitted to BEIS, which, if successful, would fund the demonstration plant incorporating C-Capture technology to remove carbon dioxide contained in the flue gases generated by the process of converting waste into energy.

Alex Young, Head of Development at BIG, and George Wright, Proposal Engineer, C-Capture, will jointly present an overview of the ground-breaking project later today, including key findings and what this means for UK’s net zero journey.

Alex Young, Head of Development, Bioenergy Infrastructure Group, said:

“BIG are committed to playing an important role in delivering on the UK Government’s net-zero ambition and the InBECCS project is an exciting opportunity to bring forward innovative technology to deliver negative emissions. We look forward to demonstrating the capabilities of InBECCS in the UK’s net zero journey, alongside C-Capture, at the Operational Optimisation Conference”

George Wright, Proposal Engineer, C-Capture, said:

“The InBECCS project is a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate the huge potential of C-Capture’s technology and help de-risk commercial-scale applications of our process across waste to energy applications and beyond. We’re excited to showcase this project in collaboration with BIG at the Operational Optimisation conference, showing the wider industry how C-Capture’s technology can future-proof the waste to energy and biomass sector.”

Carbon capture and storage is vital to help the UK reach net-zero carbon by 2050. Of the five scenarios presented by the Climate Change Committee on how the UK can achieve net zero, all include bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). However, current technologies lack commercialisation and scale. This project seeks to help to scale BECCS to capture over 7,000 tonnes of carbon every year.

However, clarity on Government support through business models for BECCS solutions delivering Greenhouse Gas Removals (GGR) is required.

The project is part of BIG’s drive to support the pathway to net zero through negative emissions technologies. BIG call on the Government to commit to a sequencing process for GGR technologies with a Bioenergy Carbon Capture & Storage (BECCS) contract to provide revenue certainty to unlock investment.