Green Car Congress: Electrabel, E.ON Kraftwerke and Hitachi Power Europe to Investigate Solvents for CO2 Capture

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Electrabel, E.ON Kraftwerke and Hitachi Power Europe to Investigate Solvents for CO2 Capture

19 April 2008

European power companies Electrabel and E.ON Kraftwerke will cooperate with Hitachi Power Europe to design, build and operate a test facility to investigate the behavior of different chemical solvents in the scrubbing process for CO₂ capture from flue gases under real world conditions.

The test facility will be able to treat up to 5,000 Nm³/h flue gas under real conditions and will operate over a four-year period during alternatively for periods of 12 to 24 months on Electrabel and E.ON Kraftwerke sites. The pilot installation can move to locations in Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium or other European countries.

Hitachi Power Europe will be responsible for the design, setup and the operation of the test facility and put at disposal sufficient shift personal for operating the test program. The test facility is a part of the global Hitachi R&D strategy for Power Systems, which is focused on increased efficiency for the turbine and steam generator; on CO₂ capture; and on general emissions reduction.

Electrabel and EON Kraftwerke will integrate the test facility in their power plants to perform the test programs. The relatively large scale of the test installation will deliver reliable data as to allow scale-up.

CO₂ emissions by Belgium’s Electrabel’s generating facilities are now among the lowest in Europe (314 g/kWh). Emissions by power stations in Belgium have been reduced by as much as 60% since 1980, due to the large proportion of electricity from nuclear power, higher efficiency of power stations fired by fossil fuels (including Combined Cycle Gas Turbine or CCGT units) and the increasing amount of electricity from renewable sources of energy.

E.ON intends to halve its specific CO₂-emissions per kilowatt-hour by 2030 in comparison to 1990. In order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from coal power plants significantly, E.ON plans to build coal power plants from 2020 applying carbon capture and storage technology (CCS). At the moment E.ON is involved in 44 projects concerned CCS.

April 19, 2008 in Brief | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)