Tata Chemicals Europe opens UK’s first CCU plant

In the UK, Tata Chemicals Europe has officially opened the UK’s first industrial scale carbon capture and usage plant, signaling a key milestone in the race to meet the UK’s net zero targets.

The £20 million investment has been completed by Northwich-based Tata Chemicals Europe, one of Europe’s leading producers of sodium carbonate, salt and sodium bicarbonate. The plant captures 40,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide each year – the equivalent to taking over 20,000 cars off the roads and reduces TCE’s carbon emissions by more than 10%. The project will help unlock the future of carbon capture in the UK as it demonstrates the viability of the technology to remove carbon dioxide from power plant emissions and to use it in high end manufacturing applications.

In a world-first, carbon dioxide captured from energy generation emissions is being purified to food and pharmaceutical grade and used as a raw material in the manufacture of sodium bicarbonate which will be known as Ecokarb. This unique and innovative process is patented in the UK with further patents pending in key territories around the world.

Ecokarb will be exported to over 60 countries around the world, generating tens of millions of export revenue every year. Much of the sodium bicarbonate exported will be used in haemodialysis to treat people living with kidney disease.

The carbon capture plant, which was supported with a £4.2m grant through the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s Energy Innovation Program, marks a major step towards sustainable manufacturing which will see TCE make net zero sodium bicarbonate and one of the lowest carbon footprint sodium carbonate products in the world.