New CO₂ Capture Technology Advances

"Oxy-combustion," a carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology, was used for the first time last week at an operating electric utility demonstration project in Germany. The pilot plant was launched by Alstom, a French construction and engineering firm. Oxy-combustion is one of a handful of technologies being explored to determine if they can efficiently and economically capture CO₂ emissions from coal-fired electric power plants. Oxy-combustion burns coal in a pure oxygen environment, creating an exhaust stream of relatively pure CO₂, which Alstom says can enhance the gas's capture, pressurization, and injection underground. The German pilot plant is a 30-MW demonstration facility built next to the existing 1,600-MW Schwarze Pumpe plant, operated by Vattenfall, a Swedish power company. Alstom is involved in several other CCS demonstrations, including one in Wisconsin at WE Energies, which uses chilled ammonia to capture CO₂ after coal is burned (C&EN, March 3, page 7). Because coal generates half of the U.S.'s electricity and more than one-third of CO₂ emissions, power plant owners and technology developers have much at stake in trials of such technologies.