UK - based “ clean ” zip ship’s company Drax Group is looking to sell offset quotation bind to U.S.-based power plants that the company has n’t even built yet , Bloomberg reports . While the company is being undefined about specifics , Drax says its first biomass plant with carbon seizure technology is carry to be up and take to the woods 2030 .
The future U.S. power plant that Drax plans to build rely on a case of carbon copy dioxide capture engineering that has n’t yet been leaven to capture atomic number 6 emission on a large scale . The idea is that the plants will operate on biomass energy — burning wood chips for fuel — to produce electricity ; the carbon capture technology will then collect the CO2 emissions produced during that process , turning them into a smooth mannikin and storing them underground .
In September , Drax signed a deal with Respira International , a C finance clientele , to sell Respira2 million loads of C remotion credits . This could be the largest bulk of atomic number 6 dioxide removals ever traded based solely on a future power plant , harmonize to Bloomberg .
A general view of Drax Group Plc’s Coal fired power station on 23 December 2024 in Drax, England.Photo: Dan Kitwood (Getty Images)
The party claim on its website that storing the emission from the biomass plants it will build ensures that the electrical energy generated during the wood chip burning can be considered carbon paper neutral or even “ carbon negative . ” This is because trees absorb atomic number 6 as they grow and release oxygen . These claim are tenuous , to say the least .
Drax has conducted small - exfoliation trials on the method it plans to apply at the plants since 2019 , using technology from a UK - based startup call in C - Capture . But the success of these diminished trial does n’t necessarily mean that this specific engineering would mould on a commercial musical scale , Bloomberg point out . The process is also expensive and will have to rely hard on government subsidy or charging client in high spirits price to cancel toll .
The idea that biomass burn itself is a “ sustainable ” pattern of vim yield also has Brobdingnagian accounting system mess . This form of carbon gaining control does n’t account for other parts of the wood Saratoga chip output that release emanation . This includes how planting and harvest trees for the wood creates emissions and then how those fleck are transmit , as one chemical substance engineer described . Studies have designate that burning tree diagram canemit more carbon than coaland that it would takemore than 90 yearsto “ ante up back ” the carbon paper debt created by chopping down trees for fuel .
Despite these prominent hurdling , Drax seems affirmative that the technical school will finally work on a commercial-grade scale . “ Our dream is to take 4 million tons of CO2 throughbioenergy with atomic number 6 capture and storage ( BECCS ) , ” the troupe wrote inan online post .
Drax has a account of selling green vigour claims based on tenuous scientific data . Last February , Mississippi ’s Department of Environment Qualityfined Draxfor $ 2.5 million , alleging that the company ’s Sir Henry Wood shot - producing plants in Mississippi had produce three to four clip the amount of air pollution allowed . All the while , Drax called itshuge UK power post — which used wood crisp import from its Mississippi flora — the “ largest renewable powerfulness station ” in the area .
Carbon dioxide removal , make love as CDR , has become a go - toclimate solutionfor the ultra - wealthy . In January 2021 , Elon Musktweetedabout throw $ 100 million to whomever could come up with the in effect carbon paper gaining control engineering . But one of our best bets for extenuate mood change and emissions as a society is by simplyphasing out fossil fuel .
“ There ’s no executable route to intercept mood change that does n’t begin with stopping emissions as quickly as we can , ” Jonathan Foley , the executive director ofProject Drawdown , which focuses on exist climate solutions , told Earther last yr . “ Do you know how hard it is to remove CO2 from the air using the machine ? It ’s really , really hard . It ’s a lot easier just not to put it in there . ”
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