British DECC awards funding for White Rose CCS project

The British Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has opened the Drax coal-to-biomass conversion plant, and announced the Government was awarding funding to further the White Rose CCS project, also based at the site. At Drax, a nearly 4 GW coal-fired power plant, the £700m (€835m) planned conversion project will burn wood pellets rather than coal. Drax calculates that this will reduce CO₂ emissions by 80% compared to coal. The White Rose proposal is to build a new 426 MW (gross) clean coal power plant with full carbon capture and storage. It will be the largest oxy combustion plant in the world and will also have the potential to co-fire biomass. It will capture approximately 2 MtCO₂/year (some 90% of all CO₂ emissions produced by the plant). The CO₂ will be transported through National Grid’s proposed Yorkshire / Humber CCS Trunkline for permanent undersea storage in the North Sea.