A key contract to enable carbon capture at a major Humber industrial facility has been issued.
US-headquartered renewable, environmental and thermal energy technologies specialist Babcock & Wilcox will design a pre-treatment process for flue gas at Phillips 66’s Humber Refinery.
It is part of a huge plan to clean up the heaviest polluting cluster in Britain, decarbonising the Energy Estuary in a major step for Net Zero Britain. The complex refinery is part of the Humber Zero carbon capture plan, partnered with neighbouring gas-fired power facility VPI Immingham, which it formerly owned. The project aims to capture up to eight million tonnes of CO2 by 2030, storing it below the North Sea.
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Adam Young, project lead at Phillips 66, said: “Utilising carbon capture technology in conjunction with a fluid catalytic cracker would be a first of a kind, and the pre-treatment is vital to the process. This work will create a blueprint for over 300 FCCs across the world and could support the industry to reduce carbon emissions.
“We are pleased to be working with Babcock & Wilcox, leveraging their expertise and knowledge. The pre-treatment is vital to the process to enable the carbon capture technology to work optimally.”
Similar technology is already used Stateside on Phillips 66 refineries, and subject to obtaining all necessary external and internal consents and approvals, it plans to complete construction of the carbon capture facility by the end of 2027.
Babcock & Wilcox will be working closely with the in-house team, alongside the chosen technology provider Shell Catalysts & Technologies and the engineering contractor Worley.
“B&W is a global leader in pre-treatment of flue gas prior to CO2 capture systems, and we are very excited to be a part of this industry-leading CO2 capture project,” Joe Buckler, Babcock & Wilcox’s senior vice president for clean energy, said. “The Humber Refinery project is an excellent opportunity to further demonstrate how we can use our reliable and efficient technologies and expertise to drive innovation and support a clean energy future.”
The Humber region produces 40 per cent of the nation’s industrial CO2 emissions, underlining the crucial role the project, and others, that form a £15 billion decarbonisation vision for 2030. UKRI, through the Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge, is investing £12.5m of government funding in the current phase of the project, matched by Phillips 66 and VPI.
Read next:
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RWE eyeing up carbon capture power station plan for South Humber Bank
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