The Anonymous Widower

Drax Secures £500,000 For Innovative Fuel Cell Carbon Capture Study

The title of this post, is the same as that of an article on the Drax web site, that was published in June 2019.

This is the first paragraph.

Drax Group will explore the feasibility of using molten carbonate fuel cells as a technology for capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) having secured £500,000 of funding from the UK Government.

These objectives are listed.

• Fuel cell FEED study to assess the feasibility of building a second carbon capture pilot at Drax Power Station will help position the UK as a world leader in the fight against climate change
• The technology used will produce power at the same time as capturing carbon dioxide from Drax’s flue gases.
• Neighbouring horticultural site will use the CO₂ to improve yields and demonstrate how businesses working together in clusters can deliver climate solutions

I am glad to see, that the Government is supporting initiatives like this.

The Drax Paradox

I have seen strawberries in a supermarket, labelled as coming from a farm at Drax in Yorkshire.

Were they grown using carbon dioxide from the power station?

They probably weren’t labelled as organic, but can you grow organic strawberries in a carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere and label them as Organic?

Conclusion

I don’t think these and other technologies will lead to any massive revival of coal-fired power stations, as mining coal is a very disruptive and dangerous process compared to extracting gas or growing bio-mass.

But I do think that they are needed for application to the following plants, that produce a lot of carbon dioxide.

• Gas-fired power stations.
• Biomass power stations.
• Cement-making
• Steel-making

The two last processes are probably the most important, as improvement in renewable energy generation, should make the first two redundant.

August 3, 2019 - Posted by AnonW | Energy | Carbon Capture, Coal, Drax, Energy, Global Warming/Zero-Carbon