First carbon capture plant starts up in Germany
Swedish company Vattenfall has announced that its carbon plant with an incorporated CO2 capture facility in Stemberg, Germany, started working this week. The plant, which features proprietary technology to reduce pollutants, stores the CO2 inside an abandoned gas field in Altmark, Germany. How does this power plant work? With a so-called Oxyfuel process: Lignite and hard coal burn in a mixture of oxygen and re-circulated CO2, which also contains water vapor. The flue gas is then treated to remove pollutants. Finally, the water is condensed and the concentrated CO2 is compressed into a liquid and stored 600 meters (about 900ft) underground. Other carbon storage projects use abandoned coal mines (like this one in Spain) or keeps the CO2 under the sea (with Ariel, apparently).
Vattenfall has invested more than €70 million in this plant, which produces 30 MW of electricity. This company expects to make the technology ready to sell by 2015, when two additional 30 MW plants will be ready in Germany and Denmark. According to the company, the Stemberg plant will have reduced its carbon emissions by 40 percent in 2020.
[Source: El Mundo via Madri+d]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ted 12:50PM (9/12/2008)
Carbon Capture Plant??? Don't we already have lots of these??
Most people call then Trees
Reply
Mike!!ekiM 1:35PM (9/12/2008)
How long does it stay sequestered? What happens after 100 years? Is this another con-job?
Reply
tekram 1:44PM (9/12/2008)
http://www.vattenfall.com/www/co2_en/co2_en/399403facts/index.jsp
This is still a net emitter of CO2, although at a much reduced level than the average coal plant.
Reply
Erik 3:10PM (9/12/2008)
So they store it underground as a liquid... And then what? They expect unlimited amounts of compressed CO2 to just stay there forever at 1000+psi?
Good plan. What could go wrong?
Reply
Mike Z 4:43PM (9/12/2008)
Compressed gas stored underground for millions of year? You may know it as natural gas
mike baz 4:02PM (9/12/2008)
This political con job has gone on far too long. Humans account for 3% of CO2 production, and in any case, CO2 is not a pollutant, it's essential to the life cycle on earth. Me thinks this carbon tax business is to fund one more level of government, a world government.
Reply
tekram 10:29PM (9/12/2008)
The cumulative CO2 has resulted in a 35% increased in CO2 level since the industrial revolution, therefore the 3% mentioned is significant because CO2 stays in the atmosphere for more than 100 years. A 3% increase in a human body temperature will make a big difference in one's health, and that is the same situation we are in with the planet.
There are many trapping methods for storage underground: http://www.vattenfall.com/www/co2_en/co2_en/399403facts/399598geolo/399697stora/index.jsp
Sebastian 1:25AM (9/13/2008)
600 meters is equal to roughly 1,980 feet, not 900 feet.
Reply