The company behind plans for Europe’s first green aviation fuel refinery, set to be built on the South Humber Bank, has met the team pioneering carbon capture and storage at Drax.
Velocys, a sustainable fuels technology company spun out of Oxford University and a US acquisition, is awaiting planning consent for the site at Stallingborough, having secured initial backing from partners British Airways and Shell.
It wants to turn waste into jet fuel in a proposal that could see hundreds of millions of pounds invested, and as part of the credentials, is exploring the potential to feeding emissions into a huge regional CCS scheme.
As reported, Altalto Immingham Ltd, as the subsidiary is known, could be plug-in ready should the ambitious plan to link up the area’s heavy industry and pump CO2 into depleted oil and gas caverns beneath the North Sea, come to fruition.
It had already voiced support for the Zero Carbon Humber campaign, which is the banner under which the large scale transport and storage network is being developed, with the target of reaching net zero by 2030.
Dr Neville Hargreaves, vice president of waste to fuels at Velocys, said: “Subject to planning consent and financing, our Altalto Immingham project could be producing sustainable aviation fuel as soon as 2024. Velocys has a robust technological solution for this challenging sector which addresses one of the hardest sectors to decarbonise and can help the UK meet its net zero target.
“Furthermore, we’ll also produce a capture-ready stream of carbon dioxide, and thus a transport and storage network in the Humber would allow us to make negative emission fuels, delivering a further environmental benefit.”
Plans were submitted to North East Lincolnshire Council for the huge site off Hobson Way in August. It has chosen the area due to the proximity of refining expertise, with Total Lindsey Oil Refinery’s direct pipeline to Heathrow understood to be a key factor too.
Steve Drayton, director of innovation at Drax, said: “There are some interesting synergies between our ambitions at Drax to become the world’s first carbon negative company and Velocys’ plans to produce carbon negative fuels in the Humber.
“Having innovative businesses like Velocys in the Humber region makes a zero carbon industrial cluster here an exciting possibility, which will result in new jobs and clean growth delivering for the environment as well as the economy.”
The Zero Carbon Humber campaign aims to create the UK’s first net zero industrial cluster in the region which could make a bigger contribution to UK’s climate goals than any other industrial cluster – capturing 15 per cent of the UK’s current annual CO2 emissions.
A combination of power stations, oil refineries and large scale chemical, steel and cement processing facilities make the region the worst polluter in the UK, but they also represent huge economic drivers, with civic and business leaders keen to see policy shaped to allow them to thrive in a low carbon economy.
Sign up for your free daily Yorkshire & Humber newsletter
BusinessLive is the national digital brand from Reach - and it's bringing together business news from across the UK.
We'll offer the best coverage of local business markets and of key business sectors nationally, from manufacturing to property and everything in between.
By bringing together regional coverage with that from across Reach’s titles in England and Wales, BusinessLive will shine a spotlight on the entrepreneurs, the stars of the future and the small firms that are the backbone of our economy.
And you can sign up to our daily email newsletters HERE.
