Tata sets up UK’s largest carbon capture plant

Tata Chemicals Europe has officially opened the UK's largest carbon capture plant at Northwich in a £20 million investment, including £4 million from the government.
 
Carbon dioxide emissions from a power plant in Cheshire are being used to make sodium bicarbonate for kidney dialysis at Britain's first industrial-scale carbon capture and usage plant.
 
Tata’s gas-fired heat and power plant generates steam and electricity for its factories that produce sodium carbonate, used in glass manufacturing, and sodium bicarbonate. Tata makes sodium bicarbonate from its sodium carbonate in a process that involves adding carbon dioxide, and the high-grade end product is used in kidney dialysis and pharmaceutical applications.
 
Previously, Tata bought in carbon dioxide but is now making its own, using flue gas emissions from the power plant of about 4 per cent carbon dioxide, which is extracted and purified. Tata is marketing the sodium bicarbonate as “Ecokarb” for export globally. Tata said it would capture 40,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, or about 12 per cent of the power plant’s emissions. Martin Ashcroft, managing director of Tata Chemicals Europe, said the big challenge had been “technically whether it was possible to produce the right quality of CO2” but as this had succeeded the project was commercially viable and Tata could make a return on the investment in as little as four years.