Viridor's Runcorn CCS Project

The UK Government announced in March 2023 that Runcorn Energy Recovery Facility’s CCS Project has been shortlisted on the Project Negotiation List for the Government’s industrial carbon capture (ICC) sequencing process in the HyNet cluster in the North West of England. The proposed plant will be amongst the first carbon capture projects on Energy from Waste facilities in the world. 

At the end of March 2024, we announced that we have moved a step closer to making Viridor’s first negative emissions project (a project which will generate Carbon Dioxide Removal credits from capture and storage of biogenic CO2) a reality, by agreeing a statement of principles with the UK Government's Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). This is the basis for future agreement of a Contract for Difference (a form of subsidy) for capture and storage of CO2 at the Runcorn ERF site. 

Developing CCS at Runcorn will connect the Runcorn ERF to a world leading carbon capture transport and storage network here in the UK. The HyNet Transport and Storage network took its Final Investment Decision (FID) in April 2025, followed by the first two CO2 capture projects at Padeswood at Protos later in the same year. 

CCS deployment at the Runcorn ERF has the potential to capture >900,000 tonnes of CO2 each year. Half of the captured CO2 will be from biogenic sources, meaning that the project has the potential to effectively remove over 450,000 tonnes annually from the natural carbon cycle (the CO2 which is naturally present in e.g. our plants and in our atmosphere), an entirely new service offering by which Viridor can not only mitigate its own fossil emissions, but offset the emissions for other hard-to-abate sectors in the UK.   

The Runcorn CCS project will provide stable baseload supply of carbon dioxide to the HyNet carbon capture cluster in the North West because our ERF receives and treats residual waste all year round. The Project is also anticipated to create 300 to 400 jobs on average throughout its construction, and c. 60 high quality permanent jobs, between the site and the local supply chain, in operation and maintenance.