Belgian bidder gets into race for power cash

C.GEN plans to build a ‘clean gas’ power station fitted with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology at Killingholme, North Lincolnshire.

The private equity-backed company follows Drax Power in Selby and Powerfuel near Doncaster in applying to the Government for access to a £3.8bn EU pot to fund clean power demonstrations.

C.GEN plans to build a plant with capacity of up to 430 mega watt (MW) output near the Humber Sea Terminal, using integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) technology. This involves burning synthetic gas containing hydrogen, created from the gasification of coal, biomass and other fuels.

C.GEN chief executive Wim Heyselberghs confirmed the company had bid for EU funding, and said the plant would employ 100 to 150 staff if successful.

“We bought land there more than two years ago,” he said. “We have the possibility to use the existing infrastructure for importing coal, potentially petcoke and biomass.

“We are quite close to potential CO2 storage facilities so we think this is a very good opportunity to build this project.

“Moreover there are many existing coal plants that in the long term will disappear. We think we can replace them with very clean electricity.”

With its abundance of power plants, oil refineries and steelworks, the Humber region is seen as a prime spot to test CCS.

Sites such as Corus steel works, Lindsey Oil Refinery, Drax, Eggborough, Ferrybridge and Killingholme power stations form a cluster of single source emitters belching out about 60 million tonnes (Mt) of carbon dioxide per year.

The next biggest UK cluster of carbon emitters, along the Thames in Greater London, emits about 28Mt annually.

CCS, an as-yet unproven technology, involves capturing greenhouse gases as they are produced and piping them deep underground. The deep salt caverns and depleted oil and gas fields of the North Sea form the ideal place to store these emissions, according to experts.

Of the nine UK bids for EU cash to build a CCS demonstration project, four are from the Humber region.

Drax, which runs the 4,000MW coal power station near Selby, submitted a bid to develop a 426MW CCS demonstration on the same site.

Powerfuel, the energy company currently in administration, has also submitted two bids for plants at Hatfield near Doncaster. One is for its 900MW proposed ‘clean coal’ plant and the second is for a 450MW ‘clean gas’ CCS scheme, to be developed in conjunction with Australian firm Calix.

Energy Minister Charles Hendry said: “The strong level of interest received for CCS projects in particular is heartening. It shows that UK industry is keen to move forward in the development of CCS and confirms the lead that the UK is taking in this critical technology.”

The Humber’s leading role in CCS was underlined at the European Carbon Capture and Storage conference in London last week.

Jeff Chapman, chief executive of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association, said: “Humberside is a fantastic place for investment in CCS. It’s got one of the biggest clusters of CO2 emitters in Europe and it’s near to great potential storage.”

He believes the region has a good chance of winning EU and Government cash to host the UK’s first demonstration projects, and could be a catalyst for other Humber CCS projects.

“I would like to see at least one of the three projects get under way in Humberside,” he said. “Drax is a really good example. It’s obviously easier for established companies with large balance sheets to raise the capital for CCS projects.”

Working with Yorkshire Forward company CO2Sense, National Grid is devising a network to pipe carbon emissions from Drax and Hatfield under the North Sea. It has selected a route through East Yorkshire as its “preferred option” for a pipeline.

Mr Heyselberghs said C.GEN had an agreement with National Grid on transporting emissions, but declined to comment further.

Jim Ward, who heads CCS at National Grid, told the CCS conference using clusters should enable “faster delivery at lower cost and lower risk”.

“Demonstrations ought to be within these clusters,” he said. “If the infrastructure (is suitable, it) can serve follow-on projects.”

However, Mr Ward said the Humber cluster was proving “particularly difficult”.

“It’s been quite a long journey for us over the three years since we started.

“The range of operators and the range of projects are huge.

“Once you can demonstrate the early projects work it will make the other ones so much easier.”

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