A carbon capture (CC) pilot plant at SSE’s Ferrybridge power station in West Yorkshire in the UK has opened, with a goal of capturing 100 tonnes of carbon dioxide daily from the equivalent of 5 MW of coal fired capacity.

The CCPilot100+ project is described as the first of its size to be integrated into a live power plant in the UK, providing a bridge between small-scale pilots and commercial-scale demonstration projects.

Doosan Power Systems designed, built and commissioned the plant using advanced amine scrubbing technology. Vattenfall also collaborated in the project with SSE. The CC project received £6m ($9.4m) in government funding.

Ian Marchant, SSE’s chief executive, said Ferrybridge would provide “an invaluable source of reference and learning for the industry as a whole”. The company is now seeking to develop a larger, commercial-scale carbon capture demonstration project at its Peterhead gas fired station, he added.

UK government plans for cost-competitive carbon capture and storage (CCS) by the 2020s were recently dealt a severe blow by the collapse of the Longannet CCS project, planned for a 2.4 GW coal fired plant in Scotland.

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