Vattenfall cranks up carbon capture plant

Stockholm - Energy group Vattenfall has completed a 30-month project to construct a carbon capture and storage pilot plant at its Schwarze Pumpe power plant in Spremberg, Germany. The unit, which will be officially opened on 9 Sept, is being billed as "the world's first carbon dioxide-free oxyfuel test facility in pilot scale."

The 30 MW Oxyfuel thermal pilot plant is designed to enable the company to develop techniques for the capture of carbon dioxide from coal combustion, with CO2 from the plant to be compressed into liquid form and stored deep underground at a depth of about 1 km.

"Our goal is to achieve a commercial concept by 2020. This demands development and extensive testing of the techniques in test rigs, pilot plants and demonstration plants before being used in commercial plant," said a statement from the energy group..

All the accumulated carbon dioxide capture knowledge is to be validated and tested in the pilot plant, according to Vattenfall. The test results, it added, will also be used for better understanding of the dynamics of the oxyfuel combustion and desulphurisation processes, as well as for optimising the process.

Vattenfall is also planning a number of demonstration plants to help it to further validate the CCS technology. These units will include all three components of the CCS concept; capture at the power plant, transport and a storage site. The sites for these demonstration plants are Mongstad in Norway, Nordjylland in Denmark and Jänschwalde in Germany.