Scottish CCS Project Gets UK Funding Boost

Scotland is to receive over £30 ($42)mn of UK government funding for a suite of initiatives linked to Pale Blue Dot's Acorn carbon capture and storage (CCS) project, the owner Storegga said March 17.

The industry match-funded initiative, called Scotland's Net Zero Infrastructure (SNZI) programme, brings together academic and industrial partners to develop a major package of work designed to progress a national low carbon infrastructure. 

Acorn is to inject CO₂ into the depleted Goldeneye gasfield, transported by pipeline from the St Fergus terminal in Scotland. The CO₂ may be a by-product of blue hydrogen manufacture as well as from industrial and power-plant emissions.

Storegga CEO Nick Cooper said in an emailed statement to NGW: "Today's funding for the SNZI programme is a further endorsement of the broader Acorn Project and the crucial role it plays in delivering the UK and Scotland's net zero plans while providing a significant boost to the region's fast-growing low carbon credentials.

"This funding will support a range of projects to progress Scotland's low carbon infrastructure including the detailed engineering required to move Acorn CCS and hydrogen through to final investment decisions. This is an important investment to ensure that this CCS infrastructure is operational by the mid-2020s, with the potential to store 20mn metric tons/yr of CO₂ emissions from Scotland, the UK and Europe by the mid-2030s, delivering new economic growth opportunities, creating and sustaining jobs in Scotland and across the UK."

The package includes the detailed engineering required to move the Acorn CCS and hydrogen projects to a final investment decision; developing a new CCS-equipped power station at Peterhead which would become an early customer for the Acorn infrastructure; and an assessment of the potential to re-use onshore pipelines to transport CO2 from the central belt of Scotland to the Acorn Project.

Also included are an engineering design programme for a carbon capture system on a gas-fired power station in Grangemouth; and the development of a "fabrication yard ready" design of a new class of ship which can service the needs of coastal CO₂ emitters around the UK for delivery at Peterhead port. 

Storegga announced two new financial investors earlier this month, joining 'cornerstone' investor Australian bank Macquarie.