A CCS roadmap

I was recently at the Coal Research Forum biannual conference. It's a pleasent affair - three good meals a day, interesting presentations and a chance to sit in the bar and chat with other people from around the country.

The opening presentation was given by Dr. Mike Farley from Doosan Babcock - they're the people who build the power stations and are also looking to build capture plants.
Part of his presentation included a roadmap for CCS.
Unlike the road map for the middle east these are so close to completion that they are more of a historical document!
Two of his slides are below.



Amine capture roadmap



Oxycoal combustion roadmap


I like to see things like this. It cheers me up. It suggests that the UK can take a global lead on a technology that is seen by the IEA as providing a 19% drop in global CO2 emissions.

Another good bit of news from today is the press release from RWE, announcing that the capture demonstration unit on their combustion test facility is nearly ready. Not exactly power station sized, yet - but a vital link in the chain.

CCS - ready when?

Getting CCS ready for commercial use is a complex affair - it's never been tried before at the scale required on power stations.

This is something which requires money - and if this money is not available the whole project can be set back.

Theage has just published something suggesting that CCS won't be in a position to contribute to the countries energy mix before 2020.
That's possible.

We shouldn't forget though that this applies to economies as a whole, and that to get it this far we need to apply the technology to individual power stations - which means CCS will be used well before this date.
For example, if we could get two learning cycles in before this date we're likely to assist in strenghening this deadline.
http://www.co2storage.org.uk/Publications/UKCCS/Gibbins08.pdf

Largely this is happening - amine capture (which is regarded as the most promising type of CCS in the short term) is being demonstrated with RWEnpower at Didcott, and then Aberthaw by around 2010.
I would guess that the governments CCS competition winner would also use this technology.

So;

CCS by 2020? Yes, of course.

CCS capturing 90% of the emissions of a power station by 2020? Probably a policital rather than a technical challenge.

CCS in in all of the countrys power stations by 2020? Possibly not.

CCS by 2020

I know that lots of people won't believe this. You probably should trust me though, I'm an engineer.

RWE yesterday began construction on a test scale carbon capture plant.
This is the post combustion plant, where the technology is most developed.

They say, in this article, that CCS will be ready for commercial oporation by 2020 - almost 10 years time.

This is interesting, not only to meet to EU 2020 targets, but also because Al Gore yesterday told America to stop burning fossil fuels over the next 10 years.
He wants the fuels not to be burnt so that they won't emit carbon. Clearly not heard of CCS then!

Four ways to capture CO2

I recently attended an even at the IChemE (Institute of Chemical Engineers) which presented the four (perhaps three-and-a-half) methods of capturing CO2.

What strikes me is how far down the production path these four methods are.

Flue gas scrubbing
This is the traditional approach, with the CO2 being scrubbed from the flue gasses just before they all go up the chimney.
Progress: A test plant is being built at the RWE test rig at Didcott, oxfordshire. This is due to be scaled up for a larger pilot plant, to be built at Aberthaw power station. At 1MW the pilot plant will be 1/300th of the size of the plant envisaged by the governments competition, so whilst it's small it is essential. The next step after this will probably be a commercial sized plant.

Oxycoal combustion
This is a new approach, where coal is burnt in a CO2 / oxygen mix. Since there is little nitrogen in this mix the combustion gases can, pretty much, just be piped straight underground (okay, some treatment is required).
Progress: Doosan Babcock is to build a 40MW test rig to prove the concept.

Gasification
Known as an IGCC plant the coal is gassified leaving a gas stream of just CO2 and water.
Progress: The components for the Hatfiled IGCC have been ordered, and provided nothing goes wrong it will be built and running by 2013.
Capture on this is obviously very easy, and the technology has been well proven.

Gasification and oxycombustion
A clever bunch of people at Jacobs engineering have worked out a method of burning the gasified coal gas, in pure oxygen and then sending the gas through a gas turbine and boiler to extract energy.
It's a great idea.
Progress: A demonstation plant is due to be built next to the Hatfield site.

All told it all looks very promising!