By
50 min ago 2 min read
Industry partners have reached the next stage of a project that aims to reduce UK cement and lime emissions by 40%.
Spirit Energy – a Centrica business – announced the Morecambe Net Zero (MNZ) Peak Cluster development has entered the ‘Assess Phase’ of its carbon storage licence.
It moves the project a step closer to securing a permit application to store carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from four cement and lime plants in the depleted North and South Morecambe fields in the East Irish Sea, once gas production ends.
“This takes us another step closer to delivering one of the UK’s most important infrastructure projects, protecting 13,000 jobs and contributing billions of pounds to the UK economy while cutting emissions at scale,” said Centrica CEO Chris O’Shea.
Alongside its Peak Cluster partners, MNZ Peak Cluster plans to transport three million tonnes of CO2 per year to the fields.
“The sheer scale of the project is enormous and the numbers speak for themselves – the biggest cement decarbonisation project on the planet,” said Matt Browell-Hook, Director of Energy Transition, Decommissioning and Projects at Spirit Energy.
MNZ Peak Cluster is the first CCS development to secure investment from the National Wealth Fund and will potentially be the largest offshore carbon store in the UK, according to Browell-Hook.
The gas fields have the capacity to hold up to one billion tonnes of CO2. Together, Peak Cluster projects could prevent over three million tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere each year.
The Morecambe fields have supplied natural gas to UK homes for more than four decades. They are expected to reach the end of their productive lives and cease production by 2030.
The cement and lime industries account for approximately 8% of global CO2 emissions. Around 65% to 70% of these are the unavoidable result of chemical decomposition.
When limestone is heated, it undergoes calcination and releases CO2 directly into the atmosphere. The remaining amount comes from burning fossil fuels like coal and gas to achieve the temperatures needed for the chemical reaction.
Critics say carbon storage remains costly and unproven at scale, and warn it could extend the lifespan of high-emitting industries while requiring decades of monitoring to ensure stored CO2 does not leak.
