Carbon capture plant to be built on land next to Rookery South energy facility in Stewartby
Energy-from-waste operator Encyclis has been given planning permission for a full-scale carbon capture plant at its Rookery South Energy Recovery Facility (ERF).
Central Bedfordshire Council gave the thumbs up for the plant which will be built on land adjoining the existing ERF.
The planned addition will enable Rookery South to capture carbon dioxide from the residual waste combustion process. Encyclis is continuing to work on potential options for the transport and storage of captured CO2.
Mark Burrows-Smith, Encyclis chief executive, said: “The confirmation of planning permission for Rookery South is another milestone achievement in our industry-leading mission to enable the decarbonisation of residual waste treatment. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a key component of that strategy and we have already started construction on our landmark Protos CCS project in the North West.
"With planning permission now secured for Rookery South ERF, Encyclis has sufficient planning consents to allow capture of CO2 volumes equivalent to our fossil CO2 emissions across our Midlands cluster.”
Rookery South ERF can treat up to 657,000 tonnes per year of residual waste. The treatment process enables the facility to generate 60MWH of baseload electricity which is supplied to the National Grid, as well as recovering ash to be converted into construction aggregates and metals for recycling.
The planned addition of carbon capture will enable the facility to decarbonise this process. Flue gases from the combustion process would be diverted to the carbon capture plant, where CO2 molecules are stripped out and transferred away from the site for storage.