Plans Progress On Carbon Capture Project

Costain has reached a key milestone in the design of one of the UK's first decarbonised industrial clusters.

The Costain project team, which includes Mott MacDonald and px Group, has now completed the first phase of the engineering design for the pipelines serving the C02 Capture element of the scheme.

The scheme will transport CO2 from carbon capture projects across Teesside, including power generation, to secure offshore storage sites in the North Sea.

The pipeline networks will take the CO2 from carbon capture projects such as the Net Zero Teesside Power CCGT generating station, which will be the world's first commercial-scale gas-fired power station with carbon capture.

The project team is also considering challenges caused by the routing of the high-voltage electrical connection, rail, road and river crossings.


The team, based at the Wilton Centre in Redcar, used laser scanning and modelling techniques to design the route for the new CO2 gathering network. The route includes the crossing of the river Tees, natural gas pipelines and high-voltage infrastructure.

The front end engineering design (FEED) was carried out for the Northern Endurance Partnership and Net Zero Teesside Power. They are key aspects of the ECC, which was selected by the UK Government as a track 1 cluster as part of the cluster sequencing process for carbon capture, usage and storage in 2021. The ECC is set to commence commercial operations by 2027.

Commenting on the scheme, Ben Ken, Northern Endurance Partnership deputy director said: "The successful design of the Northern Endurance Partnership's onshore CO2 pipeline network on Teesside is a key milestone for the wider East Coast Cluster, which has a crucial role to play in decarbonising the industrial powerhouse regions of Teesside and the Humber."

Reflecting on their involvement, Sam White, Costain's natural resources managing director, said: "The East Coast Cluster has the potential to capture and store up to 23m tonnes of CO2 a year and make a huge contribution to the UK’s net zero goals. Innovative schemes like this one are vital to ensure we grow regional economies in a sustainable way."