Carbon Capture Projects in Germany
Carbon Capture Projects in Germany
Germany has several projects in CCS. The projects discussed in this paper are
1. Vattenfall Oxyfuel Pilot Plant “Schwarze Pumpe”
2. E.ON: Post combustion Capture Plant
3. RWE IGCC Plant with CO2 Storage
4. RWE’s Scrubbing Pilot Plant
5. RWE Goldenbergwerk
6. Vattenfall Oxyfuel and Post combustion Demonstration Plant Janschwalde
7. CO2 SINK: Ketzin
Vattenfall Oxyfuel Pilot Plant “Schwarze Pumpe”:
Vattenfall has since 2001 had an R&D project on Oxyfuel technology and in 2006 commissioned a € 70 million 30 MW (thermal) Oxyfuel pilot plant. The CCS pilot plant will produce about 60,000 tonnes of CO2 per year at full load. The separated and liquefied CO2 produced by the pilot plant might be transferred to the CO2 carbon storage facility in the Altmark gas field.
The plants consists of a steam generator with a single 30MW top-mounted pulverised coal burner and the subsequent flue gas cleaning equipment, That is, electrostatic precipitator, wet flue gas desulphurisation and the flue gas condenser.
Operation of the pilot plant commenced operation in September 2008 and the plant is expected to be in operation for 3 years. Further expansion plans include a 250 to 300 MW plant around 2012-2015 and a 1000 MW plant around 2015-2020.
Pilot plant construction continues (2007), Pilot plant commissioning happened in (2008). Plant’s operation started early in 2009. Operation will be closed in the year (2014)
Fact:
Company/Alliance: Vattenfall, Gaz de France
Location: Pilot Plant, Schwarze Pumpe, south-east of Berlin, Germany
Feedstock: Coal (lignite)
Process: Pulverized dry lignite and bituminous coal. The bituminous coal will be tested later.
Size: 30 MW Pilot Plant, 300 MW demo plant, 1000 MW commercial plant
E.ON: Post combustion Capture Plant:
E.ON plans to pursue the development of post combustion technologies with a budget of € 100 million until 2014. Four of its seven projects are planned in Germany in cooperation with Siemens, Flur, Consolv and Mitsubishi. The technology uses monoethanolamine as the solvent for efficient capture of CO2.
One of the projects is located at E.ON’s coal fired power plant in Wilhelmshaven and is scheduled to start operation in 2010. Flor and E.ON Energy have formed a strategic partnership for the development of a retrofitted pilot plant using Flour’s Econamine FG+ technology. The technology uses monoethanolamine as the solvent for efficient capture of CO2.
The pilot plant will be small in scale with only 5.5 MW. In North Rhine Westphalia E.ON Energy will work together with Canadian Cansolv Technologies at its location in Heyden. The objective of this project is again to improve efficiency of post combustion by testing different solvents
Facts:
Country: Germany
Project type: Capture
Scale: Small
Status: Under construction
Capital cost: € 10 million
Year of operation: 2010
Industry: Coal Power Plant
MW capacity: 5.5 MW
Capture method: Post-combustion
Capture technology: Other
Transport of CO2 by: none
Type of storage: Not decided
RWE IGCC Plant with CO2 Storage:
In April 2006 RWE announced the development of an IGCC coal or lignite fuelled power plant. The power plant is expected to have a gross output of 450 MW and integrate CO2 capture and storage. Capture rates are expected to be about 92% or 100g/Kwh net.
If successfully implemented, the plant will be scaled up to produce 1000 MW.RWE is planning to operate the plant by 2014. Investment costs have risen to € 2 billion in this project. RWE plans to store some 2.6 million tonnes of CO2 annually and is currently assessing 3 different locations in the North of Germany for appropriate storage capacity.
In 2008 RWE started the exploration phase and if permissions are granted seismic investigations will start 2009. RWE is also planning to build a pipeline from the plant location in Hürth, in North Rheine Westphalia to Schleswig Holstein.
Since the location is well connected to open cast mines, raw lignite will be the fuel of this power plant. To reduce the water content pre drying will be applied to bring down the moisture content to 12%. As previously mentioned the power plant is expected to have a gross output of 450 MW, with an efficiency of 36% and integrate CO2 capture. Currently this project is in the regional planning procedure.
Facts:
Country :Germany
Project type: Capture Storage
Capital cost: € 2 billion
Year of operation: 2015
Industry: Coal Power Plant
MW capacity: 450
Capture method: Pre-combustion
New or retrofit: New
Transport of CO2 by: none
Storage site: North of Germany
Type of storage: Not decided
Volume: 2 600 000 tonnes/CO2
RWE’s Scrubbing Pilot Plant:
German utility RWE operates a pilot-scale CO2 scrubber at the lignite-fired Niederaubem power station built in cooperation with BASF (supplier of detergent) and Linde engineering.
The height of the pilot CO2 scrubbing plant (40 m) corresponds to that of the future commercial plant. The plant also comprises all individual components of large plants, but on a smaller scale. The diameter of the absorber column was limited to the size required to obtain representative results.
Depending on the set test parameters, up to 300 kg CO2 per hour can be separated from a flue gas bypass (corresponds to a capture rate of 90 %). An extensive investigation programme conducted under real operating conditions to test the new CO2 solvents developed by BASF will be completed in early 2010.
Facts:
Country : Germany
Project type: Capture
Scale: Small
Status: Under construction
Capital cost: € 9 million
Year of operation: 2009
Industry: Coal Power Plant
Capture method: Post-combustion
Capture technology: Amine
Transport of CO2 by: none
Type of storage: Not decided
Volume: 2 000 tonnes/CO2
RWE Goldenbergwerk:
RWE Power is working with RWE Dea to use their knowledge of the exploration of oil and gas for storing natural gas to find suitable geological formations on or offshore. RWE Power is making €2 billion (US$ 2.7 billion) available for its climate protection program until 2014, including spending money on renewable energy and CO2 reduction in developing countries. The chosen site is the Goldenbergwerk site. RWE Dea plans to investigate suitable storage locations in Schleswig-Holstein.
Total cost is €2 billion (US$2.577 billion). RWE has already committed €1 billion ( US $1.3 billion) with €800 million (US$ 1.1 billion) for the power plant and €200 million (US$ 280 million) for the pipeline and CO2 storage operations.
Power Plant – Phase 1: project development (2006-2008); Phase 2: engineering and approval procedure (2008-2010); Phase 3: construction (2010-2014) and commercial operation (2015).
Facts:
Company/Alliance: BASF, RWE Power and the Linde Group
Location: Hürth, near Cologne, Germany
Feedstock: Coal (lignite)
Size: 450 MW Gross, 360 MW Net, 2.3 million tonnes of CO2 per year captured and stored
Capture Technology: IGCC/Pre-combustion
CO2 Fate: Sequestration in saline reservoir
Vattenfall Oxyfuel and Post combustion Demonstration Plant Janschwalde:
Germanys Vattenfall build a demonstration plant for Carbon capture and Storage technologies at one of the 500 MW blocks of the conventional lignite power plant Janschwalde, in the state of Brandenburg; the Project was started in May 2008.
The Janschwalde lignite power plant consists of six 500 MW blocks. For the demonstration plant one of the blocks, consisting of two boilers, will be equipped with CCS. One boiler will be newly built with an oxy-fuel technology; the other will be retrofitted with a post combustion technology.
The investment for the demonstration is estimated to be € 1 billion. The demonstration plant will produce 300 MW.
The project was announced in May 2008; Feasibility studies were performed in the same year (2008); Application for permits (2009); Construction of new boiler is said to happen in (2011); Full scale Operation to be completed in the year (2015).
Facts:
Company/Alliance: Vattenfall
Location: Janschwalde, Brandenburg, Germany
Feedstock: Coal (lignite) from nearby opencast mines.
Process: Pulverized coal (PC) boilers combusting lignite
Size: 250 MW/ 500MW in future [estimated].
Capture Technology: Oxyfuel combustion and post-combustion
CO2 Fate: Onshore Saline formation
CO2 SINK: Ketzin (Germany)
GFZ Potsdam, as part of the European research project, CO2SINK, began storing CO2 in aquifers at a depth of 600 meters on June 30, 2008. It plans to store up to 60,000 tons of CO2 over two years, at a cost of €15 million.
The CO2SINK integrated project, is supported under the FP/6 framework by the EU commission with a budget of € 14 million, and is the first European Showcase for Onshore CO2 storage. The main objective is to monitor behaviour of CO2 injected into a saline aquifer at 600 meter depth near Berlin. By the end of July 2009, 18.417 tons have been successfully injected.
Facts:
Country: Germany
Project type: Storage
Scale: Small
Status: Operative
Financial support: FP/6 framework
Year of operation: 2008-2011
Transport of CO2 by: Road
Type of storage: Aquifers
Cumulative injected: 43.405 tonnes /CO2.
Reference:
http://sequestration.mit.edu/tools/projects/index_projects_announced.html
http://www.gassnova.no/frontend/files/CONTENT/CCSWorld/IN-report-issue6-2009.pdf
http://www.zeroco2.no/projects/countries/germany
http://sequestration.mit.edu/tools/projects/index.html
http://www.nma.org/ccs/ccsprojects.asp
Fact sheet:
RWE’s Scrubbing Pilot Plant:
http://www.rwe.com/web/cms/en/2734/rwe/innovations/power-generation/clean-coal/co2-scrubbing/
Picture:
Schwarze Pumpe:
http://www.vattenfall.com/en/ccs/index.htm
Picture:
http://www.zero.no/ccs/capture/capture-technology/post-combustion/VattenfallPilot.jpg/image_preview
http://www.unece.org/energy/se/pp/EnCom15/29Nov/CMM/BERGMANN_UNECE_EnComm15_2006_h_bw.pdf
Vattenfall Janschwalde
http://www.europeanenergyforum.eu/Plone/upload/ccs.pdf
http://www.vattenfall.com/en/ccs/janschwalde.htm
Co2 sink
http://www.co2sink.org/index.html
http://www.gfz-potsdam.de/portal/gfz/home;jsessionid=DAE1A2E190C79EE3499ECD37F50859CA
Picture:
http://www.zeroco2.no/projects/co2sink-ketzin/image/image_view_fullscreen
RWE IGCC Plant with CO2 Storage
http://www.rwe.com/web/cms/en/2688/rwe/innovations/power-generation/clean-coal/igcc-ccs-power-plant/
Picture:
http://www.zeroco2.no/projects/rwe-igcc-plant-with-co2-storage/image/image_view_fullscreen
E on Post combustion Process reference:
http://www.eon.com/de/businessareas/35244.jsp
Picture:
http://www.zeroco2.no/projects/ccsproject.2009-11-03.9120525836/image/image_view_fullscreen
Vattenfall Oxyfuel and Post combustion Demonstration Plant Janschwalde:
Picture:
http://www.vattenfall.com/en/ccs/file/370x180_Janschwalde_10414212.jpg
Related terms in the Glossary:
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Oxyfuel combustion
A potential alternative to absorption technologies would be to combust fossil fuels in pure oxygen instead of air, which contains approximately 78% nitrogen by volume. If nitrogen were removed from the process, flue gas streams would have a much higher concentration of CO2, reducing or eliminating the need for costly CO2 capture. Moreover, NOX emissions (a source of acid rain and an ozone precursor) and the subsequent need for scrubbing would be reduced significantly. Finally, trace pollutants such as NOX and SO2 could potentially be compressed and stored along with CO2, allowing control costs to be “shared” among pollutants and resulting in a zero-emissions power plant.
The main problem with this method is separating oxygen from the air. This is usually completed cryogenically which requires a lot of energy (for a typical 500MW coal-fired power station supplying pure oxygen requires at least 15% of the electricity the plant generates annually). However, a promising new technology called chemical looping combustion is under development. With this technique the oxygen in the air is removed by oxidation of a metallic compound which can be reduced during combustion allowing the oxygen to be released.
More info on oxy fuel combustion http://www.powerplantccs.com/ccs/cap/con/of/of.html