Carbon link-up could save millions

HUNDREDS of millions of pounds will be saved if Yorkshire's biggest polluters join forces on a region-wide carbon capture and storage scheme to slash CO2 emissions, a major new report has found.

The world's first technical study into the construction of a large-scale shared capture and storage network has put the final cost for a Yorkshire-wide scheme at almost 650m but concludes projects undertaken individually would total closer to 1bn.

The costs are likely to be met, at least in part, by the polluting industries themselves, potentially with the help of private investors, the Government and the European Union.

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Carbon Capture and Storage – CCS – remains a fledgling technology but is increasingly viewed as an important tool in the fight against global warming. CO2 is collected from power stations and heavy industry before it is sent down pipelines to be buried in depleted oil and gas fields deep underground.

Yorkshire is seen as an ideal location to test-drive CCS projects due to its high-polluting industries and proximity to the North Sea oil and gas fields.

The new study by CO2Sense Yorkshire confirms a large-scale pipeline network stretching from the Aire Valley to the Humber and out into the sea could cut the UK's entire emissions by 10 per cent – equivalent to half of the households in the country.

Dr Stephen Brown, director of CCS at CO2Sense, said: "CCS will be a vital part of the UK's plans to reduce our carbon emissions. This new study shows that a shared CCS pipeline project is a cost-effective way of transporting the captured CO2 from the power stations and other heavy emitters.

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"A large CO2 pipeline infrastructure is essential to give the confidence that heavy industries need to invest in CO2 capture equipment over the next decade."

The new study says the overall cost of a shared CO2 pipeline incorporating the Aire Valley, South Yorkshire and Humber regions would be 643m but if industries were to develop their own separate schemes, the total cost would be almost 900m.

CO2Sense is advocating a phased approach over the next 20 years, with Aire Valley polluters contributing to the initial Humber CCS scheme in the knowledge it would save them millions of pounds in the long run.

The report also suggests that once installed, Yorkshire's CCS network could generate funds by accepting emissions from other European countries which lack access to CO2 storage fields.

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"These CO2 emissions could be imported by ship and transferred to the network at a suitable terminal, such as could be made available at Immingham," the report states.

The Government is backing CCS, and has retained Labour's plans to fund four demonstration projects around the UK with a new levy on fuel bills.

One of those schemes is expected to be the proposed "clean coal" Powerfuel plant at Hatfield, Doncaster.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Energy and Climate change said: "CCS is a vital technology for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and providing energy security. But this technology could also provide a massive opportunity for jobs and industry in the UK for areas like Yorkshire and Humber."