C-Capture, the designer of world-leading chemical processes for carbon dioxide removal, has raised £3.5 million in new equity funding in a round led by BP Ventures, Drax, and IP Group.

The funding strongly underlines the credibility of C-Capture’s technology as the company positions itself to help mitigate climate change by providing systems that remove carbon dioxide emissions from power stations and cement, steel and aluminum facilities.

C-Capture is currently conducting a demonstration project at Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire, which will remove carbon dioxide from emissions produced by generating electricity from sustainable biomass. The project, which is the first of its kind in Europe, is highly significant because it has the capacity to produce negative emissions, whereby carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere and stored.

C-Capture will use the new funding to further develop the technology, support larger pilot projects in other industries, and increase marketing globally. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is widely-regarded as an essential component of strategies to combat climate change—both by removing carbon dioxide from processes that use fossil fuels and producing negative carbon dioxide emissions from power generation that uses biomass. The U.K. government is committed to developing and deploying CCS technology to cut emissions.

Tristan Fischer, chairman of C-Capture, said, “We’re delighted that Drax, IP Group and now BP have all seen that our unique technology has the potential to be applied at scale around the world as part of the global drive to tackle climate change. We’re all very excited about the pilot project with Drax, and also that this new funding will help to develop our technology for use across a range of industries. We are looking carefully at the broader market for our carbon capture technology, which includes not just power generation but also the production of cement, steel and aluminum, as well as biogas, across a range of territories including India and China.”

C-Capture’s technology uses new proprietary solvents to remove carbon dioxide, offering a safer and less expensive alternative to current technologies based on the use of amines. It provides a means to make the removal of carbon dioxide significantly more economic from a range of large- scale processes, such as power generation from coal, gas and biomass, and the production of cement, steel, and aluminium. C-Capture, based in Leeds, was formed in 2009 as a spin-out from Leeds University with funding from IP Group and has raised over £2.2m from the U.K. government and £1.7 m illion from IP Group so far to develop its technology.

Will Gardiner, CEO of Drax Group, said, “At Drax we are focused on enabling a zero-carbon, lower-cost energy future, and want to take advantage of the environmental and business opportunities created by a growing net zero carbon economy. The innovative technology C-Capture has developed and is piloting at Drax Power Station is putting the U.K. on the map when it comes to carbon capture and global efforts to tackle climate change. This investment gives us a long-term commercial agreement to work together with them.

“We’re confident that our bioenergy carbon capture and storage (BECCS) pilot project will be successful, and if we scale it up, it could enable Drax to become the world’s first negative emissions power station. This significant milestone means the power we produce would help to reduce the carbon dioxide accumulating in the atmosphere.”

David Eyton, BP’s group head of technology said, “BP believes carbon capture, use and storage has a key role to play in reducing emissions, in line with global climate ambitions. C-Capture’s technology could reduce the cost of capturing carbon dioxide. Our investment in C-Capture supports our ambition to advance the energy transition, and we look forward to working with them to explore opportunities to trial their technology.”

Ben Murphy, Cleantech Investment Manager at IP Group plc, said. “C-Capture provides new, world- leading technology for capturing carbon dioxide from large-scale emissions. It has great potential to address climate change by facilitating negative emissions. This funding round further shows IP Group’s ability to build world-changing companies on the back of cutting-edge science. BP and Drax are excellent partners to work with as C-Capture looks to take its technology to global markets.”