Tuesday, 8th April, 2025
Cory Group and Imperial College London partner to drive innovation in Carbon Capture
Cory and Imperial College London (Imperial) have today announced a new partnership to drive innovation in carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.
The collaboration will leverage the expertise of Cory, a leader in waste management and recycling, and Imperial, a world-leading university which is home to the UK’s largest CCS research programme, led by the Department of Chemical Engineering.
Together, the two organisations will work to drive research and innovation in carbon capture technology, as well as encouraging entry into carbon capture and storage related career pathways and raising wider awareness of STEM subjects.
According to research by the Carbon Capture and Storage Association (CCSA), the CCS sector has the potential to generate over 50,000 jobs by 2050 – equipping future workforces with the right skills to deploy the technology effectively will be therefore be essential.
Cory is developing a CCS project at its Riverside campus in Belvedere, South East London, which will capture approximately 1.4 million tonnes of CO₂ emitted from its two energy from waste (EfW) facilities, Riverside 1 and Riverside 2, per year. The captured CO₂ will then be shipped to the Port of Immingham and stored in the Viking depleted gas fields – this has the potential to be one of the world’s first CO₂ shipping projects, which can act as a pathfinder for industrial emitters which do not have access to a pipeline.
The Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial has a long-standing research track record across the whole carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) chain. It is home to a world-leading Carbon Capture Pilot Plant, and offers an MEng degree in Chemical Engineering with a strong focus on sustainability and particularly carbon management.
The Carbon Capture Pilot Plant itself spans across four floors and serves as a scaled-down representation of a full-scale chemical engineering plant. The Plant demonstrates best practices in capturing carbon dioxide (CO₂), thereby contributing to efforts aimed at mitigating climate change. By partnering with Cory, Imperial aims to bring their research and facilities to an even broader, more diverse audience.
Chris Girdham, Development Director at Cory, said: “Our carbon capture project will be vital for decarbonising the waste that we process for our customers, as well as bringing a tangible benefit to our local communities by creating jobs and driving investment. The Government’s ambition to create a ‘clean power army’ is exactly the way we need to approach the opportunity presented by net zero – I want young people in the communities we serve to see a job in CCS and think ‘that could be me’. This collaboration is about advancing technology as well as creating new opportunities for the next generation of engineers, designers and technicians. I am delighted that we are working with Imperial on this important initiative.”
Professor Omar Matar, Head of Department at Imperial’s Department of Chemical Engineering, said: “We are excited about our partnership with Cory in various areas of the transition to net zero, particularly within carbon capture. We look forward to a long and fruitful collaboration that brings our two organisations together.”