British waste management company Viridor has committed to achieving net zero emissions across all its operations by 2040. With the steps outlined in a new roadmap released on Thursday, the company plans to align itself with the goals of the Paris Agreement and to go a step further by becoming a net negative emission business by 2045. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) will play a key role in achieving these ambitions and account for two of the five action steps described by Viridor in its “Decarbonisation Roadmap”.
Based on currently available technology and the British government's planned roll-out of CCS, Viridor believes it possible to implement CCS at its four key energy from waste facilities in the UK by 2035. Its Runcorn plant would be the first facility targeted for CCS. Viridor said it will invest £400,000 (ca. €463,000) in feasibility work. Its Trident Park, Avonmouth and Dunbar waste to energy plants are to follow.
Viridor said it had selected the sites for CCS based on their proximity to the carbon capture clusters proposed by the British government. Runcorn, which currently emits around 0.9 million tonnes of CO2e per year, had been picked due to its location within the Hynet North West project area. This project includes a carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) component to be established on the Liverpool Bay oil and gas fields besides a hydrogen energy project. Along with its CO2 reduction targets, Viridor also announced on Thursday that it was joining the HyNet Carbon Capture Consortium.
