Compact Syngas Solutions receives £4m in funding for carbon capture project

COMPACT SYNGAS SOLUTIONS (CSS) in Deeside, Wales, a company that turns waste wood and unrecyclable materials into syngas and then hydrogen, has won nearly £4m (US$5.2m) in UK government funding to test a method for capturing carbon from its clean fuel production process.  

CSS uses a wide range of biomass and waste feedstocks that would otherwise go to landfill to produce syngas via heating and a patented gasification process. “The energy rich syngas produced has been certified as cleaner than natural gas, with uses beyond power generation,” CSS say.  

The syngas can then be used to produce heat and power, green hydrogen, or biocrude by integrating the gasifier with an engine, a catalytic process, or membrane technology, depending upon the sites specific output requirements. 

The firm’s modular technology comes in two sizes: a system with an electrical output of 500 kW, and another that can output 1 MW using a gas engine or gas turbine. 

CSS said its 500 kW system can alternatively produce up to 25 kg/h of hydrogen or 100 L/h of biocrude fuel, in addition to the syngas it produces. 

The new funding will help CSS build a full-scale rig to show that water can be used to separate and store CO2 during the process.  

This has previously been achieved with amines, compounds derived from ammonia which are well-known for their reversible reactions with CO2. This makes them ideal for the separation of CO2 from many CO2 containing gases. However, amines can react with CO2 in the atmosphere via photo-oxidation to give nitrosamines and nitramines, which are potentially harmful to human health and the environment. CO2 capture in the presence of NOx in flue gas and absorbers can also produce NDMA (nitrosodimethylamine), a known contaminate found in drinking water sources. 

During the project, the test rig will run continuously for 1,000 h, testing the technology’s reliability and getting it ready for commercialisation, CSS said. 

The firm added that it plans to build more than 50 hydrogen modules at around 15 sites, that will collectively produce 11,000 t/y of hydrogen, while capturing 29,000 t/y of CO2. 

Paul Willacy, managing director of CSS said: “We are delighted that we can now scale up technology into a commercial-scale demo plant, and we are actively looking for further investment to support rollout in the next couple of years. 

“Capturing and storing the carbon from our gasification process and the hydrogen we produce will support the drive to Net Zero and lower the environmental impact of producing this green fuel at scale. 

“Hydrogen has a very low environmental impact, but this project will help deal efficiently with the CO2 that emerges during its production.” 

This round of funding for CSS is from the Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (H2BECCS) Innovation Programme, run by the UK’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). In 2022, the firm won a first round of funding of £246,568 from the same programme, along with a BEIS grant worth nearly £300,000.