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Door opening for Peterhead gasification, carbon capture, gas turbine scheme
- 8 years ago (2015-09-29)
- David Flin
It is considered likely that the UK Drax power station’s bid for funding for a £2 billion ($3 billion) carbon capture project will collapse, bringing a rival scheme in Peterhead back into competition for government support. Ministers are expected to announce early next year whether a £900 million funding pot will be awarded or not. However, the Drax power company said that “critical reversals” in government support since May’s general election had undermined its confidence in the viability of the project, and that it was pulling out.
Stuart Haszeldine, Professor of Carbon Capture and Storage at Edinburgh University, said that this will prompt the government to support a CCS project for a coal gasification plant attached to a gas-fired power station. The scheme, backed by Shell, would be the first carbon capture system attached to a gas-fired power station. If built, the project would see up to one million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year captured from the three 385 MW gas turbines at Peterhead power station and pumped offshore through new and existing subsea pipelines for long-term storage in the Goldeneye gas field – which ceased production in 2011 – where the carbon dioxide would be injected from the Goldeneye platform into sandstone rock 2.5 km under the North Sea.
The project has received full planning permission, and Shell is expected to make a decision as to whether it intends to proceed with the project in December.
The Peterhead power plant, owned and operated by SSE, was originally an oil-fired plant, comprising two 676 MW steam turbines. In 2000, three 385 MW V94.3A (now called SGT5-4000F) gas turbines from Siemens were connected in combined cycle with one of the original steam turbines.
The British Geological Survey has published a report which has endorsed the project. Bill Spence, Project Manager for the Peterhead scheme, said that the report strengthens the case for government funding, without which the scheme would not go ahead.
