RWE, BASF, Linde in clean coal power advance
11 Mar 2011
Ludwigshafen, Germany – RWE Power, BASF and Linde have advanced a CO2 scrubbing solvent, which they say, can achieve a separation efficiency of 90%, high purity and much lower energy input. The development, they claim, could speed the adoption of carbon capture & storage, particularly in the coal-power generation sector.
Following the “successful results” of a joint research project for CO2 scrubbing, the partners said they will now carry out long-term tests at a pilot plant which was commissioned in the RWE coal innovation centre in Niederaussem in 2009. This new project phase will run from March until the end of 2013.
The partners expect the technology to be ready for commercial use by 2013, according to Dr. Stefan Blank, senior vice president, who heads the amines Europe business unit in BASF’s Intermediates division.
Overall, Euro6 million will be invested , as further process-engineering optimisations are made to the plant, according to a BASF statement.
Germany’s ministry of economics and technology is sponsoring the innovative project with around Euro4 million. The ministry had already provided Euro4.5 million for the research project when it was started in 2007.
“Efficient CO2 scrubbing is key to the success of carbon capture and storage technology,” said Dr. Johannes Lambertz, CEO of RWE Power. “Together with our partners, we want to move CCS forward as an enabling technology for low-polluting electricity generation from coal.
Lambertz, however, added: “We need a CCS law implementing the requirements of the EU Directive without any special
conditions to enable the technology to be used in Germany in the long run.”
Different scrubbing agents were initially tested in three test phases of six months each as part of the pilot operation of the CO2 scrubbing plant connected to the Niederaussem lignite-fired power plant to finally identify an optimum solvent developed by BASF.
Compared with processes commonly used today, the energy input can be reduced by about 20% when using the new chemical solvent for CO2 capture.
The new scrubbing agent also comes with significantly increased stability and resistance to oxygen.
This reduces the solvent consumption substantially. In the test phase starting now, the structure of the CO2 absorber, where the CO2 is removed from the flue gas, is to be optimised by Linde so that carbon dioxide can be removed even more effectively from the flue gas.
If the test is successful, CO2 absorbers for large-scale power plants, for example, could be made smaller and hence less costly. The reconstruction is starting in the middle of the year and will be complete by the end of the year.
CCS technology could remove more than 90% of carbon dioxide from the flue gases of power plants or other industrial processes from 2020. The CO2 could then be stored underground or be converted to other substances, such as fertilisers.
