Alstom, Dow start carbon capture facility

Charleston, West Virginia - Alstom and Dow Chemical Co.have anounced  the start-up and operation of a pilot plant to capture carbon dioxide from the flue gas of a coal-fired boiler at a Dow-owned facility in South Charleston. The unit uses proprietary 'advanced-amine' technology jointly developed by the two companies to capture approximately 1,800 tonnes of CO2 a year.

According to Dow, the pilot facility will operate for the next two years, generating reliable, long-term data that can be used to optimize this technology for implementation at coal-fired power plants across the globe. In 2008, the two companies entered into an agreement to develop this technology and unveiled plans to design and construct the plant earlier this year.

Alstom is excited to take the next step in commercialising an advanced-amine technology," said Philippe Joubert, Alstom executive vice president and president of Alstom Power. "This pilot plant is designed to evaluate the technology operating under power plant conditions, test proprietary innovations jointly developed by Dow and Alstom and provide data necessary to finalize the design of large-scale demonstration plants that will apply this technology."

"Dow is uniquely positioned to help address the challenges associated with CO2 capture and other energy and climate change issues, said Heinz Haller, executive vice president of Dows Performance Products & Systems portfolio. "We have worked closely with Alstom to develop a system that will make CO2 capture extremely cost effective and reduce the amount of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere."