BASF, Linde and RWE claim carbon capture advance
3 Sep 2010
Ludwigshafen, Germany – BASF, Linde and RWE, claim to have made significant progress in their joint development of technology to capture CO2 from coal-fired power plants.
The companies have been testing a chemical solvent-based technology for separating CO2 from flue gas in a pilot plant at RWE’s Niederaussem power station near Cologne, Germany.
The tests are said to have shown that the technology is 20% more energy efficient than conventional processes and consumes significantly less solvent – due to the enhanced oxygen stability of the solvents.
BASF is focused on developing improved solvents for the carbon capture process under the cooperation, which started in 2007. Linde was responsible for pilot plant engineering and construction.
The partners now aim to scale up the project, with first demonstration plants due to come on stream in 2015, an commercial application in coal-fired power stations by 2020.
This technology is expected to allow more than 90% of the CO2 contained in the waste gas of a power plant to be captured for subsequent sub-surface storage or for chemical transformation, for example to produce fertilisers.
RWE Power said it will spend about Euro9 million on the development project, while the German federal ministry of economics and technology has contributed about Euro4 million to the cost of the pilot plant.
“By enhancing efficiency and accordingly reducing costs, we have created a critical success factor for carbon capture technology, which in our view is key to climate-compatible power generation from coal,” said Dr. Johannes Heithoff, vice president, research and development, RWE Power.
“The practical tests met all of the expectations we had after lab-testing the new solvent. This paves the way for scaling up the process to large power plants,” added Dr. Andreas Northemann, business manager, global gas treatment, BASF intermediates division.
