Uniper has awarded Aker Carbon Capture a Process Design Package (PDP) to deliver design studies for a proposed post combustion carbon capture plant at their Grain power station in the Southeast of England, on the Isle of Grain, in Kent.

Uniper’s Grain Carbon Capture project is a proposal to retrofit post combustion carbon capture technology on up to all three of the existing Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) units at the power plant, with the potential to capture over 2 million tonnes of CO2 per year.

In the first phase, Aker Carbon Capture will provide its proprietary process technology design to capture carbon from the existing CCGT units at the plant, delivering a PDP that will establish the process design for the CO2 capture, conditioning, liquefaction, and temporary storage facility, as well as incorporating potential heat integration solutions. The PDP includes the necessary design information required by an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) firm to perform final engineering of the plant. 

This highly optimized design will make use of Aker Carbon Capture’s best in class intellectual property, process design expertise and project execution experience. The PDP delivery process, will allow Uniper to evaluate Aker Carbon Capture’s technology for one of the three gas turbines, helping to inform planning and permitting applications for the future construction and operation of the carbon capture plant at the existing power station.   

If Uniper selects Aker Carbon Capture as technology licensor at the end of the PDP process, the next step will be to move to the front-end engineering and design phase ahead of a final investment decision, which is expected to be taken by Uniper in the mid-2020s. 

“We are excited to support Uniper with our carbon capture technology on their path to make their European power generation portfolio 80% carbon neutral by 2030.  The development of this PDP, building on Aker Carbon Capture’s recent completion of FEED studies for other major gas-to-power projects in the UK, will provide a solid foundation for these efforts”, said Egil Fagerland, Chief Executive Officer at Aker Carbon Capture. “This award is a huge steppingstone towards turning our existing Big Catch EPC offering into a License and Key Equipment model. If this project reaches a Final Investment Decision (FID), Aker Carbon Capture may have the opportunity to provide the full technology license and deliver key equipment. Uniper has the option to commission a license to install our technology on all three CCGT units.” continued Fagerland.
 
“We look forward to the collaboration on our route towards Net-Zero. Aker Carbon Capture has a long experience of amine-based technology, and this PDP will help us to make a well-grounded technology decision for the road ahead.”

Roger Brandwood, Project Manager for Uniper’s Grain Carbon Capture project, said;
“The award of the first PDP contract to Aker Carbon Capture signifies a key milestone in the development of our plans to decarbonize electricity production at our Grain power station. The Grain Carbon Capture project will contribute towards Uniper’s ambitious strategy to make our European power generation 80% carbon neutral by 2030. Additionally, it could also help to support the UK’s transition to a decarbonized electricity system by potentially removing over two million tonnes of CO2 per year whilst continuing to provide flexible and reliable power to the national grid. 

We look forward to working with Aker Carbon Capture during this first phase of the design competition, to identify the most effective technology solutions to help deliver Uniper’s and the UK’s decarbonization strategies.” 

The UK Government has committed to investing up to GBP 20 billion over the next two decades for local carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects. To achieve the UK Government’s ambition of capturing 20-30 million tonnes of CO2 by 2030, more CCS projects will need to come online. The UK Government has committed to deploying CCS in 2 industrial clusters by the mid-2020s (Track 1), then in a further 2 clusters by 2030 (Track 2).

Media contact
Hanne Rolén – Head of Communication and Sustainability
SLB-ACC JV
Tel: +47 990 02 571 
hanne.rolen@akercarboncapture.com