Power station helps keep the fizz in the drinks sector

Power station helps keep the fizz in the drinks sector
Drax could secure future access to CO2 for the UK’s breweries and pubs, which suffered a recent shortfall

Drax, the country’s biggest power station, is helping to keep the pep in the nation’s pints by using captured carbon dioxide from renewable energy generation which could secure future access to CO2 for the UK’s breweries and pubs.

The power station near Selby has met with the British Beer & Pub Association and is about to begin a pilot trialling the first Bioenergy Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) project of its kind in Europe, which could make the renewable power generated at Drax carbon negative.

During a six month trial, due to get underway in the next few months, a tonne of CO2 could be captured and stored each day from one of the power station’s biomass fuelled generating units.

That’s enough to produce the fizz for 32,000 pints of beer a day – equivalent to 5.7 million over the course of the six month project, which is more than enough to put the bubbles in a pint for everyone in Yorkshire.

If successful, the technology being trialled could be scaled up to capture even more CO2 at the power station – the largest single site renewable power generator in the country.

Will Gardiner, Drax Group CEO said: “We’re excited to be discussing our BECCS project with the BBPA. This pilot not only has the potential to ensure the UK meets its climate targets, but for the carbon captured to also help to keep the nation’s beer from going flat – and we’d certainly raise a glass to that.”

Brigid Simmonds, British Beer & Pub Association CEO, said: “Beer is the nation’s favourite alcoholic beverage and on average pubs serve as much as 10 million pints of beer per day, so the recent shortfall of CO2 was most unwelcome. We hope that these discussions with Drax Group and the potential to increase access to a new source of CO2 in the UK will help ensure that a shortage does not happen again.”

 

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