Sizewell C and Direct Air Capture

Harnessing Direct Air Capture technology

Direct Air Capture (DAC) involves removing carbon dioxide from the air and storing it so that it cannot contribute to climate change. Some carbon dioxide (CO₂) can also be ‘recycled’ for other purposes such as conversion into synthetic fuels.

Nuclear is regarded as the cheapest way of producing low-carbon energy which can be used for DAC processes. We could potentially use some of the low-carbon heat and electricity that our reactors produce to power a DAC facility linked to our site.

Great British DAC technology

Sizewell C has partnered with the University of Nottingham, Strata Technology, Atkins and Doosan Babcock to build a demonstrator DAC unit capable of extracting 100 tonnes of CO₂ from the atmosphere each year.

All engineering, design, construction and testing activities for the pilot will be carried out in the UK to develop British DAC technology.

A full-scale DAC system linked to Sizewell C would be built away from the power station at the Port of Lowestoft and would operate without any significant impact on electricity output.

Capturing millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide

Our proposed DAC unit could one day capture 1.5m tonnes of CO₂ each year, equivalent to the emissions produced by the entire UK rail industry.

What’s more, most existing DAC systems are powered by electricity, natural gas, or both, but the consortium is working on a design where the CO₂ capture and extraction is implemented more efficiently using low-carbon heat from nuclear.

"Sizewell C is already set to become one of the UK’s biggest net-zero projects and by linking it to DAC it will make an even bigger impact on our carbon emissions." Julia Pyke, Sizewell C's Joint Managing Director