UK power generator Drax has announced it will partner with C-Capture to launch a pilot bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) project, the first of its type in Europe. With a price tag of £400,000 (€457,000/US$535,000), the project is a small one, but the two companies see it as the first in a series of pilot projects culminating in a demonstration of “rapid, lower-cost” BECCS. The particular aim of the present project is to discover if “the solvent C-Capture has developed is compatible with the biomass flue gas at Drax Power Station”, although the work will also include a lab-scale investigation into the use of the flue gas desulphurisation absorbers, still at the plant from its coal-firing days, presumably to recapture the solvent. The next project, if it goes ahead, would be the installation of a unit to capture carbon from the flue gas, and would take place in the third quarter of the year. The research will be of high interest across the combustion industry, as the ultimate aim of BECCS, ‘negative’ carbon emissions, is of considerable appeal.