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A food and farming company is investing in a pioneering pilot project to convert CO2 emissions back into solid carbon.

The Lapwing Estate has commissioned industrial engineers Bilfinger to build a plant which will use a “reverse coal approach” to try and reverse its greenhouse emissions. The 130-year old Nottinghamshire-based estate has already invested in green technology elsewhere to help make its cereals, vegetables and livestock farming more sustainable.

Bilfinger is providing technical planning and procurement and installing the plant, which is seen as a major milestone for the technique of capturing and storing carbon.

Completion of the high-temperature pyrolysis plant in Nottinghamshire is planned for the end of 2023, when it will start converting CO2 emissions back into solid carbon while producing green energy for food with a positive environmental and social impact.

The process starts with peatlands being rewetted and planted with willow coppice, allowing the peat to slowly rebuild. The process slows CO2 emissions from the land and captures atmospheric CO2 through photosynthesis.

The willow and reeds are then harvested, chipped and fed into the high temperature pyrolysis plant, which breaks it down through thermal decomposition.

The end product is renewable heat, electricity and biochar – the reverse coal – which can then be buried safely underground.

The concept is being financially backed by BEIS – the º£½ÇÊÓƵ Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy – with scientific support from the University of Lincoln and the º£½ÇÊÓƵ Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.