How will Peak District carbon capture plan work?

Breedon's cement plant in Hope is one of the sites involved

Nearly £60m is due to be spent on a major project to make quarries in the Peak District more environmentally friendly.

The Peak Cluster project, which has received £28.6m of government investment, will capture harmful carbon dioxide from three cement and lime plants and transfer it by pipeline to an under-sea storage facility off the north-west coast.

The government has described it as as the world's largest cement decarbonisation project and says it will generate and secure thousands of jobs.

But how will it work?

Why is de-carbonisation important?

The production of cement and lime releases significant amounts of harmful carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere.

To counter this, the Peak Cluster project will focus on three sites: Tunstead Quarry, near Buxton, where cement and lime are produced, along with cement plants in Hope, Derbyshire and Cauldon, Staffordshire.

The plan is for the new technology to capture carbon emissions and carefully move them to a place where they cannot do any damage to the environment.

The sites have been chosen because they produce up to 40% of the UK's cement and lime.

Cement is important to the economy because it is effectively used to glue concrete together in the building industry while lime is important because it is used in a variety of ways like the manufacturing of steel, glass and agricultural goods.

How will it work?

Limestone is quarried to produce cement and lime. Large amounts are quarried in these parts of Derbyshire and Staffordshire because it is a high-grade of limestone.

Carbon dioxide is released from the rock when it is quarried from the ground, so it is at this point that it needs capturing.

Technology is being developed to capture it in large pipes, similar to those used to transport gas from power stations to local gas distribution networks.

The plan is to compress the carbon dioxide at these quarries and move it along the pipes, which will be laid underground, to a former gas reservoir deep under the Irish Sea, off the coast of Morecambe in Lancashire.

When it is operational, it is hoped the project will prevent three million tonnes of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere every year.

Model showing how carbon dioxide will be captured and stored under the Irish Sea

Is a huge pipeline the only option?

Peak Cluster said the alternative would be transferring the captured carbon to the coast by road or rail.

However, it said this would involve about 1,000 HGV movements a day and 10 long trains per day.

A spokesperson said: "Having evaluated the options, we have determined that the preferred and least disruptive solution is an underground pipeline."

Are there are any similar projects?

The first ever carbon capture scheme at a cement plant is now in operation in Brevik in southern Norway, where CO2 is removed and stored under the North Sea.

The German firm Heidelberg Materials, which is behind the project, has also built a carbon capture facility at Padeswood in North Wales, which is due to open in the coming weeks.

Peak Cluster chief executive John Egan said securing funding, obtaining planning permission and designing what was needed at each site would mean Peak Cluster would not be operational until at least 2030 - but the technology behind it was nothing new.

"There are lots of CO2 pipes in the US and injecting CO2 into reservoirs again has been done in the past for different reasons," he said.

Peak Cluster chief executive John Egan said Derbyshire and Staffordshire would be leading the world in the use of the green technology

Carbon capture has not had universal support though.

Green campaign group Friends of the Earth has criticised the expense of it and pointed out there have been technical problems in setting up schemes.

Alex Lee, senior false solutions campaigner for the group's Scotland branch, said: "Carbon capture has received billions in funding around the world and it has never worked properly.

"Politicians should be backing climate solutions that can improve people's lives such as upgrading public transport, ensuring people live in warm homes and creating green jobs for the long-term."

What will Peak Cluster mean for jobs?

Mr Egan said the project - which will receive more than £31m in funding from private companies - not only made sense for the environment but for the economy too.

"What is really exciting now is that the UK can genuinely be a world leader in producing low carbon cement and lime," he said.

He said as well as directly creating 1,500 jobs - mainly for the construction phase - it would also help to secure existing jobs at the three sites. Directly and indirectly about 2,000 people work at the Peak Cluster's three quarries.

"I hope that people will understand why this is so positive that Derbyshire and Staffordshire are leading the world in how to make sustainable construction materials," Mr Egan said.

He hopes producing cement in a more environmentally friendly way could boost sales of British-made cement.

The Mineral Products Association (MPA) reported earlier this month that the amount of cement produced in the UK had fallen to its lowest level since 1950, as imports had continued to grow.

What else has been said about the project?

Chancellor Rachel Reeves, said: "We're modernising the cement and lime industry, delivering vital carbon capture infrastructure and creating jobs across Derbyshire, Staffordshire and the north west to put more money into working people's pockets."

Dr Diana Casey, executive director of energy and climate change, cement and lime, at the Mineral Products Association said: "Cement is responsible for 7.5% of all human-made CO2 emissions globally and is not a sector which can be easily decarbonised.

"If our industry, and the jobs which rely on it, are to survive, and thrive into the future, we must implement carbon capture and storage without delay."

And Mr Egan is optimistic Peak Cluster could lead to other similar projects nationwide.

He said: "The UK is incredibly well placed because of our geology to be a world leader in carbon capture and storage because around our coastline we have access to a lot depleted oil and gas fields - which gives us a huge capacity to do this."