The UK government’s support towards carbon capture technologies marked a milestone this week. The UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrual Strategy (BEIS) announced the Call 1 successful projects of the Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage (CCUS) Innovation 2.0 competition.
The competition is a government initiative that was launched in July 2021 involving $25 million (£20 million) in grant funding dedicated to projects developing novel carbon capture utilization and storage technology and processes.
Relevant: UK Launches Second Phase Of $88M Decarbonization Competition
It is part of the BEIS $1.25 billion (£1 billion) Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP) that aims to provide funding for low-carbon technologies and systems in order to decrease the costs of decarbonization.
The goal of the $25 million financing is to bring down the cost of capturing and sequestering CO2 and help the UK industry understand the opportunity for deploying next-generation carbon capture technologies from 2025.
The grant is available over 2 calls – call 1 will allocate over £12 million and call 2 – up to £7.3 million for the projects aiming to advance next-generation carbon capture technology to be deployed at scale. The UK government has an official goal for capture and storage of CO2 emissions – between 20 and 30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year by 2030.
Applications for the first call closed in August 2021 and successful projects were announced on May 31st, 2022. The full list of winners is as follows:
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- Electrified Subsea System for offshore CO2 storage – led by Baker Hughes – the project received £2,122,698.59
- Parametric testing of Novel Non-Aqueous Solvent technology with Rotating Packed Beds – led by Carbon Clean Solutions Ltd in partnership with The University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Doosan Babcock Ltd – the project grant is £607,126.57
- XLR8 CCS Accelerating the deployment of a low-cost carbon capture solution for hard to abate industries – led by C-Capture Ltd in partnership with Wood Group UK Limited, Castle Cement Limited, Glass Futures Ltd and Energy Works (Hull) Limited – the project was granted £1,723,101.02
- Deep Blue C – it has developed Proton™, a radically more sustainable alternative to conventional protein sources for the animal feed industry, led by Deep Branch Biotechnology Ltd in partnership with Centre For Process Innovation Limited – received are £4,827,394.93
- Turning waste carbon dioxide into value for the surfactants industry – led by Econic Technologies Ltd in partnership with Unilever plc – the project received £1,000,000.00
- StrataTrapper, commercializing breakthrough research on accurate reservoir simulation for subsurface CO2 storage – led by Imperial College London in partnership with the University of Cambridge, OpenGoSim Ltd, BP International plc, Storegga Limited and Drax Group plc – received are £959,662
- BioReact Carbon Formate – continuous capture of industrial CO2 and its utilization as a Platform Chemical Feedstock – led by Ingenza Ltd in partnership with Johnson Matthey Ltd – the grant is for £443,632.88
- FOCUSS – Flexibly-Operated Capture using Solvent Storage – led by Keadby Generation Ltd in partnership with AECOM Ltd and The University of Sheffield – granted are £515,878
On May 31, the government also released the guidance for Call 2 applications for the $9.15 million (£7.3 million) in grant funding, part of the Innovation 2.0 competition, that is allocated in three lots. The lots support projects through different stages of their development lifecycle. Deadlines of the three lots end in 2022 but dates vary.
