Acorn, a CCS-focused joint venture between Storegga, Shell UK Limited, Harbour Energy, and North Sea Midstream Partners, has signed a carbon dioxide (CO2) storage and transportation deal with international energy company Uniper.
Under terms of a signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), Acorn will store CO2 captured at Uniper’s Grain power station, a 1,326MW combined cycle gas turbine plant located in the southeast of England on the Isle of Grain.
The partners will jointly develop a potential solution to ship captured CO2 from the Isle of Grain to Peterhead Port in the northeast of Scotland and onto the Acorn transportation and storage (T&S) network.
Once at the Acorn transportation and storage network, the CO2 will then be piped and stored 2.5 km below the seabed in the North Sea using repurposed gas pipelines.
As part of the plans, Uniper is also planning to use existing jetty infrastructure near Grain to load the ships with captured CO2 and ship it from Kent to Scotland.
To capture the CO2 from the Grain power station, Uniper is currently developing proposals to retrofit post-combustion carbon capture technology at the location. The project could potentially capture over two million tonnes of CO2 per year.
Mike Lockett, Uniper UK Country Chairman and Group Chief Commercial Officer of Power, said the effort will help the company meet its target to generate more than 80% of its installed power capacity from carbon-free sources by 2030.
He added, “Retrofitting carbon capture technology at Grain, one of the most efficient gas plants in our fleet, will remove millions of tonnes of CO2 during the electricity generation process, whilst still providing flexible and reliable power to the UK’s energy system.”
“The MoU is a significant step in helping to identify a solution to ship captured CO2 for permanent offshore storage. It is also an important step for the many other emitters across the UK that need to decarbonise their essential industrial processes but require a flexible CO2 transport and storage solution.”
In addition to supporting Uniper’s decarbonisation targets, the joint project will contribute to the UK Government’s CCUS Cluster Sequencing Track-2 ambitions. To do this, Uniper and Acorn plan to collaborate to develop technical, commercial, and regulatory proposals to enable the shipment of CO2 within this timeframe.
Steve Murphy, Chief Commercial Officer, Storegga, on behalf of Acorn, concluded, “This MoU with Uniper is a great example of how our large storage capacity and transport network can decarbonise beyond Scotland while creating and safeguarding jobs and helping to build a low-carbon economy across the UK.”
About Acorn
Acorn CCS is a CO2 transportation and storage system that reuses legacy oil and gas infrastructure to transport captured industrial CO2 emissions from the Scottish Cluster to permanent storage 2.5km under the North Sea.
The Scottish Cluster is a collection of industrial, power, and hydrogen businesses in the Central Belt and Northeast Scotland that rely on Acorn CCS to decarbonise their operations.
Acorn CCS could also provide a solution for industrial emitters who do not have immediate access to storage. There is potential to use non-pipeline transportation, like shipping, to move captured CO2 from across the UK and internationally to the Acorn CCS geological storage sites.
source: gasworld.com (Molly Burgess)