UK Firm Proposes Method for Carbon Storage

The United Kingdom’s National Grid PLC (www.nationalgrid.com) is working to launch a new business unit, National Grid Carbon, which would focus on the transport of captured carbon emissions from U.K. power stations for storage in the geological formations of old North Sea gas fields, according to a report by Industrial Info Resources (www.industrialinfo.com). The company has proposed the creation of a pipeline network to carry carbon from coal- and gas-fired power plants around the Humber estuary in Yorkshire for permanent storage in the permeable rock formations of old North Sea gas fields. According to National Grid, since all of the gas has been pumped from these rock formations, they are ideally suited for the permanent storage of captured carbon emissions.

National Grid says the pipeline network would provide the gathering system to collect the carbon and then pump and store it offshore. The system could be operational by 2012, which would meet the government”s deadline of 2012 for the first operational, commercial scale CCS-equipped power plant.

According to Industrial Info, a technical team from National Grid is working with a unit at Newcastle University (www.ncl.ac.uk) to study methods for storing and moving carbon by pipe, and a commercial development business team is examining ways in which NGC could be structured and financed.

For Industrial Info’s full report on this story, click here (registration required).