Regional development agency One North East is confident its prospectus to build a Carbon Capture and Storage Cluster (CCS) will attract foreign investment to the region.
Although other CCS developments around the world largely focus on generating power, the North East's strong chemical and process industry presence encouraged the area to address capturing emissions from industrial process plants.
Alan Clarke, Chief Executive of One North East, said: “The partnership developing this cluster has the technology, knowledge and political vision to help North East England to lead the world in this field.
The partnership developing this cluster has the technology, knowledge and political vision to help North East England to lead the world in this field.
Alan Clarke
Chief Executive, One North East
“This prospectus outlines all the work that has been done to date in the region in this area, how we as a region can move forward, and how we can deliver the plan.”
The proposals include a new CCS power plant at Eston Grange in the Tees Valley and part-converting the Rio Tinto Alcon plant at Lynemouth, Northumberland, which will jointly capture about 7.5 million tonnes of C02 each year.
One North East said the technology will help international companies meet greenhouse gas targets and that a CCS cluster could be working by 2015.
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Captured CO2 would be piped to a North Sea storage site or used to boost production in aging oilfields, potentially expanding at least 15 million tonnes of carbon annually.
CCS investment could bring between £2 billion and £4 billion into Britain's economy each year, according to an independent report for the Department of Energy and Climate Change.
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