In a UK first, Veolia and Sheffield City Council in partnership with clean technology company C-Capture, trialled the technology at the Sheffield Energy Recovery Facility (ERF).
The captured CO2 will initially be released as part of the testing process, allowing engineers to assess performance, safety and efficiency of the technology. At this stage, the objective is to validate how effectively the system captures CO2 and how efficiently the solvent can be regenerated for repeated use. The two-year trial aims to demonstrate the economic viability of scaling the technology to capture, store and utilise carbon from the waste management facility.
Greg Searle, Commercial Director, C-Capture, said, “Successfully operating our technology at the Sheffield site is a major milestone. It demonstrates not only the scalability of our non-amine approach, but also its real-world advantages in energy efficiency, cost, and safety—particularly for challenging applications like energy-from-waste facilities. Veolia has been an excellent and progressive host, providing the ideal environment to demonstrate our technology.”
This demonstration project represents an important step in assessing the role that carbon capture technologies can play in decarbonising hard-to-abate emissions. It is intended as a complementary solution alongside waste prevention, increased recycling, eco-design and other measures to reduce fossil carbon entering the waste stream, rather than as a standalone answer to climate change, and forms part of the Veolia Group’s wider research and development into a range of carbon capture techniques.
While the initial results are promising, this pilot also reflects the current stage of carbon capture technologies. Their large-scale deployment will depend on the availability of supporting infrastructure, appropriate regulatory frameworks, viable business models and continued public investment.
The CCS industry is experiencing significant investment. The UK government has committed up to £21.7 billion in funding over 25 years to support the development of CCS, which it projects could add £5 billion annually to the UK economy by 2050. This funding is predominantly focused around designated carbon clusters, and given that over half of emissions occur outside of clusters this presents a missed opportunity to support dispersed industrial assets across the country that could benefit from carbon capture and utilisation technologies.
Donald Macphail, Chief Operating Officer - Treatment, Veolia UK said, “Carbon capture is one of the tools available to help decarbonise residual emissions where they cannot yet be avoided. However, achieving net zero also requires continued progress in waste prevention, recycling and circular economy solutions to reduce emissions at source. Technologies such as this are designed to complement - not replace - those priorities."
“This innovative project is an example of our decarbonisation commitment as part of Veolia’s strategic GreenUp programme and the potential to utilise this carbon locally gives environmental security to our customers and other regional industries.”
For businesses, particularly those with high energy use or hard-to-abate emissions, the trial highlights the potential for scalable, lower-cost decarbonisation solutions that can be integrated into operational sites. The modular nature of the technology means it could be deployed across a wide range of industrial facilities without fundamentally changing their existing operations.
Over time, technologies like this could help businesses to reduce exposure to carbon pricing, future-proof assets against tightening climate regulations, and unlock new commercial opportunities through the reuse of captured carbon in low-carbon fuels and materials.