A trial using ground-breaking technology to capture carbon emissions from British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant has been extended.

The trial, which was approved by the Environment Agency to demonstrate the potential of FluRefin, is a joint project between British Steel and the University of Sheffield. FluRefin was developed by Professor Peter Styring and Dr George Dowson from the University of Sheffield in partnership with AESSEAL, the Rotherham-based seal manufacturer.

With the support of SUSTAIN, the future steel manufacturing research hub, the University team created a carbon capture system that does not use environmentally hazardous chemicals and which is much cheaper and smaller than other carbon capture technologies.

During the initial phase of the project, a mobile carbon capture pilot plant was installed at British Steel’s Central Power Station in Scunthorpe and used to extract carbon from the power station’s boiler flue.

Said Dr Andy Trowsdale, British Steel’s Head of Research and Development, “This project is all about testing the capabilities of the technology. If it works for us, and others, it could be scaled-up and play an important role in carbon capture, utilisation and storage.”

British Steel’s involvement is part of a wider project by the University of Sheffield which aims to enable the use of waste gases from manufacturing industries like steel and glassmaking to generate an alternative source of carbon for consumer products.

The CO₂ captured at British Steel will be bottled in gas cylinders and transported back to the University of Sheffield where it will be converted into synthetic transport fuels.