Environment Agency issues Cory Decarbonisation Project emissions permit for Belvedere carbon capture plant

The Environment Agency has issued an environmental permit for Cory Environmental Holdings Limited’s proposed carbon capture facility at Norman Road North, Belvedere, south-east London. Published on 1 September 2026, the decision covers the Cory Decarbonisation Project under the Industrial Emissions Directive regime and the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016.

The permit, referenced EPR/JP3020LL and determined on 28 August 2026, authorises the operation of the carbon capture element of a wider multi-operator installation that includes the existing Riverside Resource Recovery Facility and Riverside Energy Park. It is a significant regulatory milestone, but it is not a blanket approval for unrestricted operation: Cory must meet the permit’s operational controls and secure the Environment Agency’s written approval for a series of technical submissions before commissioning can begin.

What the permit authorises

The authorised activity is a post-combustion carbon capture process treating exhaust gases from two adjacent energy-from-waste plants. The proposed system uses an amine-based solvent to separate carbon dioxide from flue gas, before compressing, dehydrating and conditioning the captured CO2 for export, transport and long-term geological storage.

Treated flue gas would be discharged through dedicated carbon-capture stacks. The permit also covers directly associated operations, including solvent treatment, carbon dioxide compression and storage, cooling, water treatment and emergency generating equipment. It specifically recognises that limited carbon dioxide venting may be needed during start-up or other than normal operating conditions, with controls and monitoring requirements applying to those events.

The environmental permit is distinct from the project’s development consent. The Secretary of State granted development consent for the project on 5 November 2025, covering the infrastructure proposal, including a post-combustion capture facility and a jetty for onward CO2 transfer. The new Environment Agency permit instead regulates the environmental performance of the installation once it is brought into operation.

Controls move from assessment to delivery

The permit translates the application and the Environment Agency’s technical assessment into legally enforceable operating requirements. Cory must run the activity through a written environmental management system, retain compliance records and use competent staff and adequate resources. Records generally need to be retained for at least six years, while certain land-condition and off-site environmental-effect records must be kept until permit surrender.

For the capture stacks, the permit sets a monthly emission limit of 0.003 mg/m3 for total nitrosamines and nitramines. These substances can arise from degradation of amine solvents and are a key consideration for solvent-based capture systems. A range of other amines, degradation products and process parameters will require periodic monitoring, even where the permit does not set a numerical emission limit.

The monitoring regime is extensive. It includes continuous measurement of carbon capture efficiency, recording of CO2 venting events and their total mass, and metering of exported CO2. Cory must also monitor amine solvent condition, including active amine content, carbon dioxide loading, heat-stable salts, soluble iron, colour and degradation products. Monitoring equipment, techniques and organisations must hold MCERTS certification or accreditation where this is available, unless the Environment Agency agrees otherwise in writing.

Key deadlines are linked to commissioning

The permit contains no single public operational start date. Instead, its principal deadlines run backwards from commissioning and forwards from the completion of commissioning. This means programme teams will need to build permitting deliverables into final design, procurement and construction schedules rather than treating them as a post-construction exercise.

• At least 12 months before commissioning, Cory must submit a review of the carbon dioxide venting risk assessment and proposed management measures for approval.
• At least six months before commissioning, it must submit proposed process-monitoring methodologies and detailed arrangements for continuous and periodic emissions monitoring.
• At least three months before commissioning, it must submit a commissioning plan, including expected emissions, environmental risk controls, a commissioning monitoring plan and methods for demonstrating capture efficiency and quantifying vented CO2.
• Within three months after commissioning, reports are required on monitoring-location standards and initial emissions-monitor calibration and verification.
• Within 15 months of commissioning or operation, depending on the condition, Cory must provide further evidence on commissioning performance, solvent degradation and an updated emissions-to-air risk assessment based on real operational data.

The post-operation assessment is particularly important. Data from the first year of operation must be used to test whether actual stack emissions align with the assumptions made in the original impact assessment. If the review identifies a risk of exceeding relevant environmental assessment levels, Cory must propose remedial measures for the Environment Agency’s written approval and implement them to the agreed timetable.

Implications for operators, developers and advisers

For carbon capture developers, the decision is a practical example of how environmental permitting is being applied to large-scale solvent-based capture at an existing industrial site. It demonstrates that a permit can be issued while retaining significant regulatory hold points for detailed design, commissioning evidence and early operational performance.

Operators considering similar projects should identify emissions-monitoring locations, sampling access, data systems, solvent-management arrangements and abnormal-operation scenarios early in design. They should also ensure that air-quality modelling assumptions, environmental risk assessments and commissioning plans are capable of being verified with operational evidence. Contracts for capture technology, monitoring services and construction works should allocate responsibility for the approvals and evidence needed before commissioning.

Environmental due diligence should also distinguish between planning consent and an operational environmental permit. The Cory project now has both development consent and an issued permit, but the latter remains conditional on compliance with its detailed requirements. Any material change in the nature, functioning or extension of the permitted activities that could have environmental consequences may need advance notification to the Environment Agency and, in some circumstances, a separate permitting route.

The Environment Agency’s decision document records that the permit application was publicly advertised between 27 November 2025 and 8 January 2026 and that relevant statutory and non-statutory bodies were consulted. The Agency concluded that, subject to the permit conditions, the facility can be operated with a high level of protection for the environment and human health.

Organisations involved in comparable decarbonisation infrastructure should now use the published permit and decision documentation as a useful reference point for programme planning, monitoring specifications and environmental compliance assurance.