The UK Government’s promise to reduce carbon emissions could be in jeopardy after a run of bad news. Last month they failed to secure vital funding for two Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) projects due to providing a lack of information to the European Union. The applications submitted were worth around £500 million in investment but were refused after some funding details were omitted on the application.
CCS plays a key element to the carbon emissions reduction plan in the UK. Liberal Democrat MEP Chris Davies has described the news as a devastating blow. Davies has led the discussion of the funding in the European Parliament and has made his disappointment clear. Taking to Twitter he blamed Chancellor George Osborne for ‘throwing away’ the investment opportunity. One of the projects based in South Yorkshire would have powered one million homes with low carbon electricity by 2016, creating 3,800 jobs and a further 600 once the plant was in operation.
Flow measurement computers form part of the latest technology used in CCS-equipped plants. Flow computers can not only measure the gas flow rates, but also calculate the mass of CO2 when the gas is burnt. Ex~i Flow’s SFC3000 flow computer has been set up in a number of carbon capture and storage power installations, providing information which is then used in the overall calculation of how much CO2 is produced.
With Britain aiming to become a world leader in Carbon Capture and Storage technology, which remains a largely unexplored arena, these recent failures leave Britain’s ambitious CCS goals as exactly that – ambitious.