After the Climate Change Committee’s Carbon Budgets made it very clear that in order for the economy to achieve net zero, the UK would need to deliver carbon removals, enfinium made the announcement that they would be investing in carbon capture and storage at Ferrybridge.

This investment is an excellent and major step forwards, as it was recently confirmed that an estimated 50% of unrecyclable waste from society consists of biogenic content. This content consists of things such as waste food, plants and paper, all of which have already naturally absorbed Co2 from the atmosphere. Therefore, if CCS technology is installed at a facility that produces energy from waste, such as Ferrybridge, instead of being released back into the atmosphere, this Co2 which has already been absorbed, can be captured and permanently stored. This system would result in a process which involves carbon removal from the atmosphere, which are also known as ‘negative emissions.’

The CCS site which will be built at enfinium’s Ferrybridge 1 and 2 facility in Knottingley, is on track to be operational by 2030 and will have the ability to remove 600,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It will also be capable of generating more than 90 MW of baseload carbon negative power. These abilities will make this plant extremely useful as it will provide the UK with necessary carbon removals and it will make this possible through the decarbonisation of unrecyclable waste.

The technology will be installed at the site based in West Yorkshire and once installed and operational, will make Ferrybridge one of the largest carbon removal projects in Europe. The Ferrybridge site will become so large that once operational, the project will capture an estimated 1.2 million tons of Co2 annually. This would be the equivalent of removing carbon emissions for every household based in Manchester. This will generate multiple benefits including accelerating regional decarbonisation in West Yorkshire, plus supporting more than two hundred jobs throughout the supply chain whilst the project is in the development phase.

Now that the plan is in place, enfinium has put forward a proposal, which includes grant support from the UK Government for their expansion of the Track-1 cluster sequencing process, which is planned to launch this month. The planning and permission for the site will proceed in 2024. This project is one of the first steps within enfinium’s larger decarbonisation plan, therefore enfinium has more CCS plans and the company intends to continue creating and reviewing opportunities to deploy CCS at other facilities within its portfolio.

UK Director of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association, Olivia Powis, said, "enfinium's planned £800 million investment in CCS at Ferrybridge marks a critical milestone for carbon removal and clean power. For the UK to host one of Europe’s largest carbon removal projects, it demonstrates we are really leading the way in our journey towards a net zero future. enfinium's strategic vision has the potential to sustain and create good local jobs and transform the facility in West Yorkshire.”