Hitachi Zosen Inova, a global leader in waste-to-energy and renewable gas technologies, is partnering with enfinium to build and operate the UK’s first carbon capture pilot plant at a Waste to Energy facility. Once operational in July 2024, the new scaled-down, containerised and mobile plant will enable enfinium for the first time to capture up to 1 tonne of carbon dioxide (CO₂) each day from its operations at the Ferrybridge 1 facility.

Ferrybridge, England. Hitachi Zosen Inova (HZI) has been chosen by enfinium to deliver  pilot trials with a mobile, containerised plant for carbon capture (CC) at the existing Ferrybridge 1 waste-to-energy (WtE) facility in West Yorkshire. The CC plant will use HZI’s amine-scrubbing technology, which has been designed to seamlessly interface with enfinium’s onsite WtE operations.

The pilot plant being supplied by HZI will be a scaled-down version of the CC technology, which could be applied to WtE facilities on a commercial scale. The unit will capture up to one tonne of CO₂ per day from enfinium’s operations at the Ferrybridge 1 site in West Yorkshire. The new facility will trial different amine-based solvents for at least 12 months and will be operational from July 2024.

This CC pilot plant will be the first of its kind in the UK’s WtE sector and is a significant milestone for HZI. It not only builds on HZI’s reputation as a world leader in WtE engineering and supplying technology, but it will also help its clients decarbonise their operational footprints over the long term. If the trial is successful, it will allow HZI to apply its CC technology on a commercial scale at this WtE facility and other plants around the world.

Using HZI’s CC technology will allow the vital data gathered from testing to be analysed to demonstrate the future “scalability” of CO₂ removal technology across enfinium’s fleet of WtE facilities. Simultaneously, enfinium will be able to utilise this pilot plant to optimise its long-term onsite operations by customising the testing and training programmes for its employees, while at the same time reducing future financial investment risks to decarbonise its long-term operations.

“It gives us tremendous pride to collaborate with enfinium on this important carbon capture project and together continue to move the dial on decarbonisation across the UK’s waste management infrastructure,” said HZI’s Chief Executive Officer Bruno-Frédéric Baudouin.

“This initiative is evidence of HZI’s move beyond waste to energy and into so-called ‘waste to X’, where outputs, including energy generation, now extend beyond maximising heat use and the recovery of more metals into vital CO₂ reduction and more. Projects such as this represent a crucial step in the journey towards enhanced decarbonisation, resource circularity and supply security, allowing us all to aim for a future free of ‘wasted’ waste,” he added. 

Mike Maudsley, CEO of enfinium, said: “Installing carbon capture technology at energy from waste facilities is the only way the UK can decarbonise its unrecyclable waste. It also offers benefits including creating durable carbon removals, or negative emissions, at scale and generating reliable homegrown power. This groundbreaking partnership with HZI will allow us to test multiple capture techniques that could in the future be deployed across our facilities at scale.”

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Download Image – The Ferrybridge 1 waste-to-energy facility in the foreground, with Ferrybridge 2 in the back-ground (Picture credits: enfinium, 2024)