Engineering Matters

Engineering Matters


#199 Pioneering Carbon Capture for Thermal Power

January 26, 2023

How can we maintain reliable power through the energy transition, while still making significant cuts to energy emissions? Carbon capture and storage promises an answer, but much groundwork must be done to bring this potential to life.



SSE recently received approval to build a new gas power plant at Keadby, in Lincolnshire, which could be the UK’s first power station equipped with carbon capture technology. The power plant will help maintain reliability for the UK National Grid, even when renewable energy is not available, while cutting carbon emissions by as much as 95%.



The Keadby plant is one of many industrial and power emitters of carbon in the UK that will pump gas to the East Coast Cluster, a system of carbon transport and storage under development in disused oil and gas wells in the North Sea.



But first, the project team needed to understand the ground that the power station site sits on and assess geo-hazards and any risks they may cause to the development, working collaboratively with Fugro to develop a geotechnical ground model that will inform the design.



Guests



Katy Burke, Lead Engineer, Keadby Carbon Capture Project, SSE



Mark Birley, Keadby CC Project Director,  SSE



Nick Armstrong, Lead Consultant, LSC Fugro



Rob Hawkins, Regional Commercial Excellence Manager, Fugro