1,200 piles support world's first commercial-scale gas power plant with integrated carbon capture

Construction is advancing on NZT Power in Teesside, a 742 MW gas-fired power station designed to become the world's first commercial-scale facility of its type with integrated carbon capture and storage.

The plant is being built on the former Redcar Blast Furnace site and is designed to capture around 95% of its carbon dioxide emissions, equivalent to approximately 2 million tonnes per year. The captured CO2 will be compressed and transferred into the Northern Endurance Partnership network before being transported offshore for permanent storage in a saline aquifer around 145 km from the coast.

The project combines a gas turbine, steam turbine, generator, heat recovery steam generator, exhaust gas recirculation system and a large post-combustion carbon capture facility. At up to 742 MW, the station is expected to produce electricity equivalent to the average annual requirements of more than one million UK homes.

Before the major process equipment can be installed, a substantial foundation programme has been required. Around 1,200 piles have already been installed to support the plant's heavy equipment and reinforced concrete foundations. Each pile location requires three separate ground operations because of the site's industrial history and the potential presence of unexploded ordnance from the Second World War.

The first stage involves pushing a probe into the ground using a hydraulic ram to check for potential unexploded ordnance. The ground is then pre-cored to depths of up to 6 m because the upper strata can contain slag, old concrete and demolition rubble from previous industrial activity.

Only after these operations can the permanent foundations be installed. The project uses 600 mm diameter continuous flight auger piles extending to depths of up to 23.6 m. This sequence illustrates the additional complexity involved when major new infrastructure is constructed on a heavily developed brownfield site.

The foundations themselves are substantial. Large reinforced concrete bases are being constructed for the gas turbine and other major equipment, with foundation works expected to continue into the second quarter of 2027.

The civil engineering programme is closely linked to equipment delivery. Large underground elements, foundations and pipework must be completed early enough to leave sufficient working space for extremely large plant components arriving at the site.

The gas turbine, for example, is being transported from Belfort in France to the deep-water port at Teesside before being moved onto the construction site. The nearby terminal has been upgraded specifically to accommodate major deliveries.

Above ground, one of the most prominent structures will be the approximately 120 m high carbon capture absorber. Flue gas will pass upward through the tower while an amine-based solvent captures the CO2. An exhaust gas recirculation system will return part of the CO2-rich flue gas to the turbine inlet, increasing the CO2 concentration in the exhaust and reducing the solvent and energy requirements of the capture process.

The project's technical challenge therefore extends well beyond the carbon capture technology itself. Foundations, buried services, major equipment installation, power generation and CO2 transport must all be coordinated as one integrated system.

First operation is targeted for 2028. For civil and geotechnical engineers, NZT Power provides an important example of how future energy infrastructure can combine complex brownfield ground conditions, deep foundations, heavy industrial structures and large-scale carbon capture within a single construction programme.