Carbon Capture Scotland boosted by international investor

Carbon Capture Scotland's first capture site is based near Dumfries

A Scottish carbon capture firm's bid to remove a million tonnes of CO2 a year from the atmosphere by 2030 has been boosted by an international investor.

Carbon Capture Scotland is pressing ahead with a £120m carbon removal and storage project following a seven-figure investment by Steyn Group.

Project Nexus is focusing on the Scotch whisky and agriculture sectors.

It aims to remove carbon dioxide that has been naturally captured in organic materials such as grain and barley.

The firm has developed a method of capturing CO2 produced from organic processes such as whisky fermentation.

The technology, which has already been trialled at its existing site near Dumfries, is due to be installed within the next year at several distilleries, including Tullibardine in Perthshire and Whyte and Mackay's Invergordon distillery.

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Some of Steyn's investment will be used to fund the firm's first modular carbon capture units.

It will also fund the development of sites that permanently store and remove carbon dioxide in geological formations. Carbon Capture Scotland is exploring locations such as redundant North Sea oil reservoirs.

Steyn will also provide financial backing to help the firm generate carbon dioxide removal (CDR) credits that can be used by global companies to achieve net zero targets.

Carbon dioxide removal is a complex chain of events which ultimately enables CO2 to be removed from the atmosphere.

When the biomass grows - be it grass or trees - it stores CO2. But when it dies and decomposes that carbon is ultimately released.

What this does is interrupt the process.

The biomass can be used to create electricity either through burning or fermentation but if the CO2 generated can be captured and stored it's a carbon credit.

That credit can be a useful tool in mitigating - or offsetting - our overall emissions, particularly those which might be harder to reduce to zero.

In 2021, Carbon Capture Scotland constructed one of the UK's largest carbon capture sites at its south of Scotland base, using the CO2 to produce dry ice for the pharmaceutical and food sectors.

Carbon Capture Scotland's technology is due to be installed within the next year at several distilleries following a successful trial

The company has received more than £500,000 in financial support from South of Scotland Enterprise since it was founded a decade ago by brothers Ed and Richard Nimmons.

It said one of its key priorities was to develop carbon capture skills in rural areas that might normally miss out on technology jobs. Its goal is to generate up to 500 jobs across rural Scotland by 2030.

Richard Nimmons said: "Removing one million tonnes of CO2 per year is the equivalent of decarbonising the gas and electricity of more than 175,000 average UK homes.

"Project Nexus delivers a massive kick-start to carbon removal in the UK by working with activities that are already a key part of our economy.

"This is one of the world's largest carbon removal programmes, and we do not have to wait 10 years - this can be started right now."