ETI launches £25m carbon capture search
22 Mar 2010
London – The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) is seeking organisations or consortia to bid for a £25-million technology project to establish an advanced CO2 capture demonstration project in the UK.
The project goal is to take the technology to a stage where it has completed full-scale demonstration by 2015 and is ready for adoption in commercial power applications by 2020, said ETI – a UK government funded body with industrial members including BP, EDF Energy, E.ON, Rolls-Royce and Shell.
According to the Institute, bidders must prove that their technology can reach a state of development that would allow investors to start engineering the design of a next generation power plant in 2015, with operation commencing in 2020. A request for proposals is due to be issued on the ETI website at www.energytechnologies.co.uk on 31 March.
ETI has already completed an in-depth analysis of likely future UK requirements for new build and CCS retrofit power generation. The target now, it said, is to get detailed and specific proposals for a technology validation and demonstration programme to new build coal with CCS as part of its wider portfolio of CCS developments.
This project would enable the technology to catch the “second wave” of CCS implementation in the 2020s – following on from the first phase of plants expected to be built between 2015 and 2020 as part of the Department for Energy and Climate Change’s demonstration projects.
Power generation accounts for about a third of the UK’s CO2 emissions or 180 million tonnes of CO2 a year, and capturing and storing that carbon could reduce emissions from fossil fuel power stations by 90%, according to ETI chief executive Dr David Clarke.
“Capturing the CO2 emissions from fossil-fuelled power stations using the technologies currently available can increase the capital costs of a new power station by between 50 and 100% and significantly reduce power output or increase fuel consumption,” said Clarke. “Developing capture technologies that cost less and have less impact on performance will significantly enhance the potential for wide-scale roll out of CCS in the UK.”
ETI has previously announced the £3.8m UK Storage Appraisal Project, to improve the estimates of how much practical geologic storage space is potentially available around the country as captured CO2 would be transported to storage sites, probably in disused oil and gas reservoirs under the North Sea.
The ETI brings together the complementary capabilities of global industrial groups - BP, Caterpillar, EDF Energy, E.ON, Rolls-Royce and Shell - in a unique approach with the UK government. Operating at a national strategic level it is delivering large scale complex engineering solutions for the UK energy system helping to meet 2050 challenges.
Last year it announced 15 projects worth over £53m in offshore wind, marine, transport, CCS, energy storage and distribution and distributed energy.
The ETI also developed its unique Energy System Model to help identify those technologies capable of having the greatest impact through to 2050 under a range of different demand scenarios. Already in 2010 the ETI has announced a further £9m of projects in offshore wind, distributed energy, CCS and transport.
ETI is a UK based company formed from global industries and the UK Government, which brings together projects and partnerships that create affordable, reliable, clean energy for heat, power and transport.
The Institute’s six private sector members are BP, Caterpillar, EDF Energy, E.ON, Rolls-Royce and Shell. The UK Government has committed to match support from four further Members.
The ETI is funded by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills through the Technology Strategy Board and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
