Australia and China Sign Coal Plant Carbon Capture Research Agreement

7 March 2008

Australia and China have signed a formal international agreement for research into carbon capture at coal plants. The agreement, between Australia’s CSIRO and China’s Thermal Power Research Institute (TPRI), involves plans for TPRI to install, commission and operate an amine-based post-combustion capture pilot plant at the Huaneng Beijing Co-Generation Power Plant as part of CSIRO’s research program.

Post-combustion capture (PCC) uses a liquid to capture carbon dioxide from power station flue gases and can potentially reduce carbon dioxide emissions from existing and future coal-fired power stations by more than 85%.

The pilot plant is designed to capture 3,000 tonnes per year of CO₂ from the power station and begins the process of adapting this technology to evaluate its effectiveness in Chinese conditions.

The installation of the PCC pilot plant in Beijing is a CSIRO Energy Transformed Flagship research project and forms part of the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate initiative (APP). The APP program for PCC also includes a pilot plant installation at Delta Electricity’s Munmorah power station on the NSW Central Coast, with an additional Australian site currently under negotiation.