Carbon Capture and Storage

North London Waste Authority (NLWA) is replacing Europe’s oldest energy-from-waste facility with a high-tech, world-class Energy Recovery Facility. It will generate heating and hot water for many thousands of local homes as well as electricity for the National Grid.  

The Energy Recovery Facility is a better environmental option for dealing with residual household waste than landfill or transporting it elsewhere.  

To improve the facility’s environmental benefit further, NLWA is currently investigating the use of carbon capture and storage. 

Carbon capture and storage are technologies that process and capture CO₂ to prevent its release into the atmosphere from an activity such as the burning of waste to generate heat and power. 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says that by integrating carbon capture and storage at waste-to-energy facilities, they “can become a net-zero or even ‘net-negative’ energy source”.  And the UK’s Committee on Climate Change wants new energy-from-waste facilities to be “carbon capture-ready". 

Investment 

Worldwide investment in developing capture and storage technologies more than doubled between 2022 to 2023 to £6.3bn. In its Spring 2023 Budget, the UK Government announced that it would be investing up to £20bn in funding for the early deployment of carbon capture.     

Due to the UK continental shelf in areas such as the North Sea, the UK has one of the largest potential CO₂ storage capacities in Europe. The Government says that it wants the UK to become a global leader in the technology to ensure the country has the option to deploy carbon capture at scale during the 2030s, subject to costs coming down sufficiently. 

Towards carbon capture at Edmonton 

NLWA has appointed three expert teams to develop the strategic plans for carbon capture, transportation and storage at the EcoPark. 

It is a major technical undertaking involving engineering, planning, financing, collaboration, and project management. NLWA is aiming to install carbon capture at the EcoPark in the 2030s on the site of the current energy-from-waste facility after it has been decommissioned and dismantled. 

NLWA has also joined the Carbon Capture and Storage Association which is the lead UK and European trade association aiming to accelerate commercial deployment. NLWA is a partner too in the Bacton Thames Net Zero (BTNZ) Cooperation Agreement, which is exploring the feasibility of transporting to, and storing carbon dioxide from Southeast England and the Thames Estuary in, the Hewett depleted gas field in the North Sea.