Even the rubbish plant goes negative: captured CO₂ from Ellesmere Port's waste will be purified and buried under Liverpool Bay

A waste-to-energy plant burns what cannot be recycled — and at Protos, in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, it will soon start un-burning its own emissions. Veolia has been chosen to design and supply two purification units for the carbon capture system being built by Encyclis at the plant, which processes up to 500,000 tonnes of non-recyclable waste a year and generates up to 49.9 megawatts of electricity. The system is designed to capture about 370,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, purify it, and send it for permanent storage under Liverpool Bay through the HyNet network. When it starts operating in mid-2029, the plant is expected to become a 'negative emitter' — removing more carbon, counting the biogenic share of its waste, than it releases.

SDG 13 · Climate action — Mechanism: infrastructure build