Plans have emerged to build a colossal world-first 121-mile underground CO2 pipeline from Derbyshire's Peak District, past Liverpool, to the Irish Sea.

The Peak Cluster Pipeline is the brainchild of the Derbyshire quarrying and cement firms which lead the UK's production of vital building materials – but as a bi-product also produce many tonnes of carbon emissions.

Tarmac, Holcim, Breedon, Buxton Lime and Spirit Energy, working closely with the SEEL Summit Energy Revolution, Progressive Energy and the Government's National Wealth Fund, form the combined project group.

Of the current £59.6 million project cost, £28.6 million is coming from central Government, awarded last July, with the rest being contributed by private firms.

Due to the massive scale of the project, which would take three years to build across four counties, the scheme is to be decided nationally, with local councils merely acting as consultees, alongside residents, interest groups and businesses.

It is hoped the scheme would create 1,200 temporary construction jobs, while safeguarding 2,000 existing roles.

The scheme would be the world's largest cement decarbonisation scheme, diverting three million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year from being pumped into the atmosphere, and instead being sequestered in the east Irish Sea, in the depleted Morecambe gas fields, through pipes from Derbyshire to the Wirral, in Merseyside.

Morecambe Bay would be capable of storing a gigatonne of carbon dioxide – three years worth of the UK's entire carbon emissions, with a storage licence signed off in 2023.

Derbyshire and Staffordshire are responsible for 40 per cent of the UK's cement and lime production and cement production in turn is responsible for 7.5 per cent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions.

The scheme is due to be submitted at the back end of this year, with an aim to have a decision – a development consent order – from Government in 2029 and the pipeline to be operational from 2032.

Overall, the pipeline corridor is to be 300 metres wide and 121 miles long, but this would eventually be narrowed down to 100 metres in width to allow for adjustments, while the actual pipes would be around a metre wide, Peak Cluster diagrams show.

The depth at which the pipe is buried will be decided at a later date and will include sign-offs from the Environment Agency and other bodies to determine how far beneath watercourses it needs to be.

Some areas may not see the pipeline buried, documents detail, including passing by some roads, railways or ancient woodland.

If approved the scheme would cover 121 miles (195 kilometres) from Breedon's Hope Valley cement works, nine miles north-east of Buxton, just above Bradwell; connecting to Tarmac's Tunstead facilities close to King Sterndale and Fairfield; with the two lines merging at a new connecting facility on what is currently open countryside between Dove Holes and Chapel, before heading to the south of Chapel, around the east and north of Tunstead Milton and north of Whaley Bridge, before heading west, splitting around either side of Lyme Park.

After this, the route would head north of Bollington, around the west of Prestbury and Macclesfield to Gawsworth, where a connecting spur line from Cauldon in Staffordshire would be linked in.

The Staffordshire spur would stem from Holcim's Waterhouses works, adjacent Caudon, to the east of Leek, round the north of Rudyard and Biddulph.

After Gawsworth, Cheshire, the line continues west, north of Holmes Chapel, splits either side of Middlewich, continuing west north of Church Minshull, south of Tarporley, heading north, passing Waverton and the eastern outskirts of Chester, before turning west past Ellesmere Port.

The Merseyside final stretch sees the route pass to the south and west of Capenhurst, before splitting and encircling Willaston, passing east of Thornton Hough, east of Barnson, cutting, appearing to cut through Arrowe Park Golf Course, skirting close but avoiding Royden Country Park, north of Thurtaston, before reverting north between Frankby and Greasby, onwards to Meols, connecting with the Irish Sea close to the Leasow Lighthouse.

A further 41 miles of pipes would connect the pipeline from Meols to Morecambe Bay to the north, underwater.

Lhoist UK had planned to join the Derbyshire firms forming the Peak Cluster project, linking the pipeline to its Hindlow facilities near Harpur Hill, but it has now withdrawn, while Buxton Lime has said it does not need a new facility at its Hindlow site, consolidating its Tunstead works.

Current maps for the chosen route show the pipeline being closely led past scheduled monuments and sites of special scientific interest and conservation.

The Derbyshire stint from Hope Valley to Dove Holes would include around four miles through the Peak District, with the rest making use of the purpose-built slit through the Peak District which has always excluded Chapel, Whaley, Dove Holes and Buxton.

Documents submitted to central government outline that more sites alongside the Derbyshire and Staffordshire quarries would be able to connect to the Morecambe Bay carbon store in the future.

Carbon capture facilities, new structures, would be built at the Breedon's Hope Valley cement works and the Tarmac's Tunstead cement works, to funnel carbon dioxide into the eventual pipeline.

Construction of these new buildings and associated technology is expected to take four years from 2029 at Hope and around two years in Tunstead, documents detail.

Between 20 and 56 full-time jobs would be created at Hope Valley while details are not yet available for new roles at Tunstead. 

The Holcim works in Staffordshire would take four years to complete and create 28 new jobs.

Further new facilities would need to be built along the route, with one earmarked for a large site between Dove Holes and Chapel.

A broad search area begins 500 metres south of Chapel and extends to Dove Holes, with anticipated "significant" effect on the landscape and Peak District National Park.

Alongside these would be facilities near Gawsworth, Middlewich, Chester, Ellesmere Port, Hoylake and Meols.

The coastline connection at Meols Beach would include a 50-metre high chimney and associated facilities that would take 18 months to build, in the 500-metre gap between the Park Lane Holiday Homes site and the Leasowe Lighthouse – which is 34 metres high.

Documents submitted to the Government claim the alternative to the pipeline of switching the type of fuel used in the production processes "only offer a marginal reduction in emissions", leaving the sequestering options still required.

John Egan, CEO of Peak Cluster Ltd, has said: "Peak Cluster is focused on securing a sustainable future for the cement and lime industry. Together with the Morecambe Net Zero Project, the UK's biggest carbon store, we will capture, transport and store CO₂ to support industry to thrive in a low carbon future."

Speaking last year, Chancellor Rachel Reeves, said: "We're modernising the cement and lime industry, delivering vital carbon capture infrastructure and creating jobs across Derbyshire, Staffordshire and the North West to put more money into working people's pockets."

Consultation on the plans is under way and concludes on Friday, February 27 at 11.59pm.