Pioneering and established technology company in the Midlands, KEW Technology, awarded government funding to build and demonstrate an innovative carbon capture and hydrogen production commercial-scale facility.
SWM member KEW Technology has been awarded funding to develop a Carbon Capture and Hydrogen (CCH₂) production module, funded through the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP), under the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy’s (BEIS) Greenhouse Gas Removals (GGR) Programme.
The CCH₂ module will be designed as an add-on to KEW’s existing Advanced Conversion Technology (ACT) plant located at KEW’s commercial-scale Sustainable Energy Centre (SEC), in the West Midlands, UK. Together, they will be used to demonstrate CO₂ capture and sequestration via the production of hydrogen from biomass and waste feedstocks. The commercial scale ACT plant, which already produces a hydrogen-rich syngas, and the add-on CCH₂ module will enable 20,000 tonnes per annum of greenhouse gas removal, delivering a net carbon-negative H₂ modular solution for industrial or transport applications.
£110m of funding has been allocated to GGR strategy and innovation by BEIS under the Net-Zero Innovation Programme (NZIP), with £54m directed towards GGR demonstration projects such as KEW’s CCH₂ facility that will be operational from late 2023. GGRs encompass a wide range of technologies at different stages of development including Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) and Direct Air Carbon Capture and Storage (DACCS). BECCS projects involve the conversion of waste or biomass into useful alternatives in power, heat, hydrogen or other low-carbon and zero-carbon advanced fuels.
Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Hands said: “This £54 million government investment announced today will help establish a greenhouse gas removal industry in the UK, which could be worth billions to our economy, bringing in private investment and supporting the creation of new green jobs”.
KEW’s innovative BECCS-H₂ Greenhouse Gas Removal solution has a de-risked scale-up pathway through its modular design which couples with KEW’s existing modular advanced gasification technology. The benefits of KEW developing standardised, modular solutions across the sustainable energy product suite are strong ongoing cost-reductions and improved quality and reliability enabling wide-spread deployment. The solution further enables waste to value: effective utilisation of the valuable waste and biomass resource through BECCS for H₂-rich fuels.
Kamal Kalsi, CEO of KEW Technology, said: “The GGR funding award for our CCH₂ product provides KEW with an excellent opportunity to showcase how our scalable ACT solution can be coupled with carbon capture to form effective negative-carbon energy solutions. This serves as a catalyst for sustainable and accelerated defossilisation”.
Ultimately, the deployment of KEW’s CCH₂ module will also contribute to stimulating the domestic supply of and demand for biomass, developing new regional biomass crops and growing the national capacity of local, biodiverse supply chains financed by the H₂ revenue. KEW’s business plans forecast that 3,500 biomass supply chain jobs would be supported in rural regions alone. The CCH₂ module’s H₂ revenue also contributes to reducing the cost of carbon capture, too. As a result, deploying CCH₂ modules will strengthen both the UK’s biomass and carbon capture value chains, contribute a future-proof energy security solution and create skilled jobs along the supply chain.
KEW’s proposed geographically distributed deployment model provides value to all areas of deployment while bolstering the UK’s reputation as a pioneer in green technologies generating green collar jobs as well as supporting the broader ‘Levelling Up’ agenda.
KEW has already produced a fully costed, risk mitigated engineering design for the CCH₂ facility under the GGR Phase 1 competition in 2021 (read Phase 1 report here), and has now been awarded the funding by BEIS to progress into demonstration under Phase 2. KEW’s Phase 2 detailed engineering programme begins in July 2022 with the CCH2 unit beginning operation late 2023.
About KEW
KEW Technology is a UK based sustainable energy solutions company. KEW’s Advanced Conversion Technology provides an innovative approach to tackling climate change by efficiently converting all types of non-recyclable wastes and low-grade biomass into sustainable energy products, such as rDME (LPG & diesel substitute), hydrogen, heat and advanced fuels. KEW sits at the heart of two parallel market (r)evolutions: the drive to zero carbon emissions and the shift to a zero-waste circular economy. The challenge to decarbonise energy and reduce waste is a global issue and one that is likely to have a defining impact on our society for future generations. KEW’s technology can provide a viable and cost-effective solution to this challenge, and we are already working with leading stakeholders on numerous projects globally.
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