Carbon Capture Plant Opens At RWE’s Coal Innovation Center

Germany’s carbon dioxide scrubbing plant at RWE’s Coal Innovation Center in Niederaussem has been officially opened, reported tce today.

Germany’s federal minister for economics and technology Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg and North-Rhine Westphalia state premier Jürgen Rüttgers have inaugurated the plant.

The scrubbing plant in Niederaussem is a joint venture between RWE, Linde and BASF. The total cost incurred to develop the plant is around EUR9m. The Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology has provided 40% of the total cost. BASF has provided scrubbing solvents and Linde has provided the process engineering services.

RWE expects that the pilot plant would help them to develop ways to reduce the energy required for carbon capture and to get data for the potential retrofit of large-scale plants from 2020 onwards.

The preliminary tests on the plant has resulted in capture of 300 kg CO2/h from a partial flow of power station flue gases with a capture efficiency of 90%. North Rhine-Westphalia has aimed to reduce 81m t of carbon emissions by 2020.

Guttenberg, said: "Modern technologies enable us to use coal, one of the important energy sources, while at the same time meeting our climate protection goals. The CO2 scrubbing plant brings us one step closer to a coal-fired power plant of the future.”

An investment of EUR90m has been spent in RWE’s Coal Innovation Center which also comprises a prototype plant for pre-drying lignite, a REA plus high-performance scrubber for improved separation of dust and sulphur dioxide from flue gas and a pilot plant using waste CO2 to grow algae biomass.