Thursday 4 February 2021

Veolia and Carbon Clean to trial carbon capture at energy recovery facilities

Veolia has teamed up with Carbon Clean to trial carbon capture technology at its waste to energy facilities.

They will test Carbon Clean's latest technology, which is said to be significantly smaller than other technologies, making it suited to retrofit applications, such as energy recovery facilities (ERF).

It will extract and purify CO2 from combustion flue gas emissions into a valuable commodity that can form part of a new circular carbon economy.

A specific solvent has been developed to extract carbon dioxide from industrial gases with low energy input and the CO2 is then compressed and/or liquefied to be used in an industrial application or for permanent storage.

Potential applications for the captured carbon include use in greenhouses to boost plant growth, building materials such as concrete, production of organic chemicals that make up solvents, synthetic rubber and plastics.

Veolia currently operates 10 plants in the UK that process around 2.3 million tonnes of non-recyclable waste and transform it into electricity for more than 430,000 homes.

Veolia and Carbon Clean have been working together for four years and the new joint project will highlight how the carbon capture technology can work effectively on waste to energy plants.

Gavin Graveson, Veolia's Executive Vice President of the UK and Ireland said: “This project marks another another significant step forward for the industry by making it possible for energy recovery facilities to contribute to the environment through lowering carbon and delivering landfill diversion, grid resilience, district heating and carbon capture.

“By using the potential of non-recyclable waste to generate energy and support communities, we can power the low carbon cities of the future.”