Drax Signs Agreement with Mitsubishi to Launch Major CCS Project in UK

Drax Group, a renewables company has agreed to a long-term contract with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for letting them use its CCS technology

Kentaro Hosomi, Chief Regional Officer EMEA, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI); Carl Clayton, Head of BECCS, Drax Group; Jenny Blyth, Project Analyst, Drax Group at Drax Power Station, North Yorkshire. Credit: Drax website

Kentaro Hosomi, Chief Regional Officer EMEA, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI); Carl Clayton, Head of BECCS, Drax Group; Jenny Blyth, Project Analyst, Drax Group at Drax Power Station, North Yorkshire. Credit: Drax website

Drax Group, a renewables company has agreed to a long-term contract with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for letting them use its carbon capture and storage technology. Drax will use MHI’s carbon capture technology to remove emissions from its power station at Selby, North Yorkshire in the UK. Once operational, this will be the largest execution of negative emissions in a power plant anywhere in the world.

Drax has already launched the biggest decarbonization project in Europe by re-adapting its North Yorkshire power station in England to use biomass instead of coal to produce electricity. The company has declared its intention to become carbon negative by 2030. The company expects its first BECCS-equipped power plant to begin operations by 2027, with the capacity to capture and store approximately 8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.

Will Gardiner, Drax Group CEO, said: “This game-changing contract between Drax and MHI could contribute to a decade of global environmental leadership from the UK and provide further stimulus to a post-Covid economic recovery. Subject to the right regulatory framework being in place, Drax stands ready to invest further in this essential negative emissions technology, which not only permanently removes CO2 from the atmosphere but also delivers the reliable, renewable electricity needed for clean, green economic growth.”

Kenji Terasawa, President & CEO, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engineering, said: “We are very proud to have been selected as Drax’s technology partner and we firmly believe that our carbon capture technology will make a significant contribution to the UK and wider global community achieving their net-zero targets.”

As part of the agreement, MHI will also place its CCS team at London, where Drax’s European headquarters are. The company will also explore employment opportunities in the country in the next few years. This agreement also launches Drax as the first company to sign a major-scale CCS project in the UK. It is hoped that these efforts will help UK to achieve its target of reducing carbon emissions by 78% by 2035. The project with Drax comes in time for the G7 meet in Cornwall and the COP26 in Glasgow in November.

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