Plans have emerged to build a colossal 121-mile underground CO2 pipeline from the Peak District to the Irish Sea, running through Cheshire close to Nantwich.
The Peak Cluster Pipeline is the brainchild of the Derbyshire quarrying and cement firms which lead the UK’s production of vital building materials – but as a bi-product also produce many tonnes of carbon emissions.
Tarmac, Holcim, Breedon, Buxton Lime and Spirit Energy, working closely with the SEEL Summit Energy Revolution, Progressive Energy and the Government’s National Wealth Fund, form the combined project group.
Of the current £59.6 million project cost, £28.6 million is coming from central Government, awarded last July, with the rest being contributed by private firms.
Released maps show the proposed pipeline would pass close to Church Minshull, Alpraham and Bunbury, south of Tarporley, as part of Stage 4 of its pathway through Cheshire (image, above)
Due to the massive scale of the project, which would take three years to build across four counties, it is to be decided nationally with local councils only acting as consultees alongside residents, interest groups and businesses.
It is hoped the scheme would create 1,200 temporary construction jobs, while safeguarding 2,000 existing roles.
The scheme would be the world’s largest cement decarbonisation scheme, diverting three million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year from being pumped into the atmosphere, and instead being sequestered in the east Irish Sea, in the depleted Morecambe gas fields, through pipes from Derbyshire to the Wirral, in Merseyside.
Morecambe Bay would be capable of storing a gigatonne of carbon dioxide – three years worth of the UK’s entire carbon emissions, with a storage licence signed off in 2023.
Derbyshire and Staffordshire are responsible for 40% of the UK’s cement and lime production. Cement production in turn is responsible for 7.5% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions.
The scheme is due to be submitted at the back end of this year, with an aim to have a decision – a development consent order – from Government in 2029 and the pipeline to be operational from 2032.
Overall, the pipeline corridor is to be 300 metres wide and 121 miles long, but this would eventually be narrowed down to 100 metres in width to allow for adjustments, while the actual pipes would be around a metre wide, Peak Cluster diagrams show.
The depth at which the pipe is buried will be decided at a later date and will include sign-offs from the Environment Agency and other bodies to determine how far beneath watercourses it needs to be.
Some areas may not see the pipeline buried, documents detail, including passing by some roads, railways or ancient woodland.
If approved the scheme would cover 121 miles from Breedon’s Hope Valley cement works, north-east of Buxton, connecting to Tarmac’s Tunstead facilities close to King Sterndale and Fairfield; with the two lines merging at a new connecting facility on what is currently open countryside between Dove Holes and Chapel, before heading to the south of Chapel, around the east and north of Tunstead Milton and north of Whaley Bridge, before heading west, splitting around either side of Lyme Park.
After this, the route would head north of Bollington, around the west of Prestbury and Macclesfield to Gawsworth, where a connecting spur line from Cauldon in Staffordshire would be linked in.
The Staffordshire spur would stem from Holcim’s Waterhouses works, adjacent Caudon, to the east of Leek, round the north of Rudyard and Biddulph.
After Gawsworth, the line continues west and splits either side of Middlewich, continuing west north of Church Minshull, south of Tarporley, heading north, passing Waverton and the eastern outskirts of Chester, before turning west past Ellesmere Port.
A further 41 miles of pipes would connect the pipeline from Meols to Morecambe Bay to the north underwater.
Current maps for the chosen route show the pipeline being closely led past scheduled monuments and sites of special scientific interest and conservation.
The Derbyshire stint from Hope Valley to Dove Holes would include around four miles through the Peak District, with the rest making use of the purpose-built slit through the Peak District which has always excluded Chapel, Whaley, Dove Holes and Buxton.
Documents submitted to central government outline that more sites alongside the Derbyshire and Staffordshire quarries would be able to connect to the Morecambe Bay carbon store in the future.
Carbon capture facilities, new structures, would be built at the Breedon’s Hope Valley cement works and the Tarmac’s Tunstead cement works, to funnel carbon dioxide into the eventual pipeline.
Further new facilities would need to be built along the route, with one earmarked for a large site between Dove Holes and Chapel.
Alongside these would be facilities near Gawsworth, Middlewich, Chester, Ellesmere Port, Hoylake and Meols.
Documents submitted to the Government claim the alternative to the pipeline of switching the type of fuel used in the production processes “only offer a marginal reduction in emissions”, leaving the sequestering options still required.
John Egan, CEO of Peak Cluster Ltd, has said: “Peak Cluster is focused on securing a sustainable future for the cement and lime industry.
“Together with the Morecambe Net Zero Project, the UK’s biggest carbon store, we will capture, transport and store CO₂ to support industry to thrive in a low carbon future.”
Speaking last year, Chancellor Rachel Reeves, said: “We’re modernising the cement and lime industry, delivering vital carbon capture infrastructure and creating jobs across Derbyshire, Staffordshire and the North West to put more money into working people’s pockets.”
Consultation on the plans is under way and concludes on Friday February 27th.
(Story by Eddie Bisknell, local democracy reporter)
Find it hard to believe the environmental disruption, CO2 generation (direct and indirect), and the government expenditure of carrying out this project can possibly be justified by what will be infinitesimal impacts on global CO2 level, let alone global warming levels. The project sounds a bit HS2’ish and the goals sound a bit heath robinish.