C-Capture: Former Rolls-Royce chief Warren East named chairman of ground-breaking Leeds climate technology firm

C-Capture’s objective is to develop the world’s most energy-efficient carbon capture process using the company’s unique solvent-based technology that can capture CO2 directly from industrial flue gases.

C-Capture is developing a scalable, modular approach that aims to lower the cost of capture compared to current commercial solutions and can be applied to a wide range of hard-to-abate industries.

The business is backed by investors including Drax, IP Group, bp Ventures, Northern Gritstone, and the UK government.

Tom White, chief executive of C-Capture, said: “I am absolutely delighted to announce that Warren will be joining us. His wealth of experience in commercialising novel technologies along with his commitment to the energy transition is a true asset to the company at a critical period in our growth”.

“His expertise in successfully scaling and transforming businesses will be invaluable as we move forward with the commercialisation of our unique technology and expand our investor base”.

Mr East added: “I am excited to be joining the team at this pivotal point and to work with the management to scale the business. C-Capture’s carbon capture technology has all the elements needed to break through the barriers currently preventing widespread adoption of this critical technology for the world to achieve net zero”.

Mr East is a chartered engineer with almost 40 years of industrial and technological experience.

His early career included 11 years at Texas Instruments, before joining ARM in 1994, where he was appointed to the board in 2000 and was chief executive from 2001 to 2013.

As chief executive of Rolls-Royce from April 2015, until his retirement on December 31, 2022, he led the company through a period of significant modernisation, capacity growth, and cultural change.

In addition, he steered the business through the Covid-19 pandemic and championed its strategic shift to net zero.

His leadership experience includes previous non-executive director roles at Dyson and BT Group as well as current board roles at ASML and Tokamak Energy.

Mr East has a degree in engineering science from Oxford University, an MBA from Cranfield, and honorary doctorates from Cranfield, Newcastle, Bath, Loughborough and Derby Universities.

With his wife he is also the founder of the Relithan Charitable Trust which supports STEM education and medical research.

The announcement of Mr East’s appointment comes as Drax received planning permission for a multi-billion pound carbon capture project at its North Yorkshire biomass power station.

C-Capture operates a pilot plant at Drax power station which intends to find out if its technology could be applied to Drax’s biomass derived flue gas. It has been capturing CO2 from the flue gas since February 2019.

The data gathered from this trial is feeding directly into the design process for a full-scale plant, with a target of 10,000 tonnes of CO2 per day captured from one of Drax’s four biomass fired boilers.