Developing Effective Business Models for Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS)

Working alongside project leader Element Energy, Carbon Counts has been requested to assist the UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in assessing the potential role of different investment and business models in supporting industrial carbon capture.

Carbon capture technology is proven but a number of factors drive up costs and inhibit investment. Addressing these barriers could improve affordability, enable more cost-effective industrial carbon capture projects, and make them investable, enabling their deployment and operation. To date, CCS projects have tended to be based on a "full chain" (capture-transport-storage) models requiring complex risk sharing arrangements and various economic and technical CCS risks. However, the use of "part chain" business models, as developed in several settings worldwide, can potentially be more cost-effective and help unlock the potential for CCUS deployment.

The UK Government committed in the Clean Growth Strategy (CGS) to review the delivery and investment models for Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS). The current project will help inform this review, focussing specifically on industrial carbon capture infrastructure. The aim is to identify the range of business models that could enable cost-effective deployment and operation of industrial capture technology in the UK.

The results on the study are expected to be published later in 2018.