C-Capture's story
C-Capture was founded in 2009 as a spin-out company from the School of Chemistry at the University of Leeds. The company was established, with support from IP Group, to develop work from Prof. Rayner's research group, where they had been building upon his nearly twenty years' experience working with CO2 to find new solutions to carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS).
CCUS doesn't diminish the need to continue reducing CO2 emissions in other ways – for instance, by using more renewable energy, such as wind and solar power. But it offers considerable potential for reducing emissions in particularly hard-to-abate sectors, such as cement and steel production. What's more, CCUS, along with natural carbon capture achieved through reforestation, would be a necessary step on the pathway to limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.
C-Capture has designed, built and installed several carbon capture pilot plants on the sites of different greenhouse gas emitters. The company is gathering data from these trials to feed into the design process for a full-scale plant, with a target of 10,000 tonnes of CO2 per day captured.
For businesses in hard-to-abate sectors, carbon capture may be part of their answer to achieve net-zero emissions on site if the technology can be applied at a commercially useful scale.
Useful learnings from C-Capture
Hard-to-abate industries are essential to the economy – but they're also major contributors to global CO2 levels. They're also very difficult to decarbonise due to the high level of impurities in their flue gases and, in these cases, carbon capture is part of the solution.
There are alternative carbon capture methods out there. C-Capture's approach is based on novel technology that is amine free and environmentally benign. Different approaches may use less energy. In all instances, collaborating closely with partners is essential to deliver the critical work of reducing real emissions in the most efficient and appropriate way.
C-Capture's metrics
Tonnes of CO2 captured.
Scaling potential carbon capture solutions from pilot plant to full-scale.
Adapting solutions to work commercially for different hard-to-abate sectors.
