Australia hails potential of Callide CCS demonstration

19 November 2008


The government of Queensland says that a project demonstrating carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology at the Callide coal-fired power plant could be “Australia’s gift to the world”.

Work has started on the A$206 million project, which will show how existing coal-fired power stations can be retrofitted with clean coal and carbon capture technology. Success on the project will mean that existing coal plants around the world can play a role in reducing global warming, according to lead developer CS Energy.

“This is the first project of its type anywhere in the world and governments and industry across the globe are keenly awaiting its results,” said Martin Ferguson, Australia’s Minister for Resources and Energy. “Success at Callide will demonstrate that existing coal-fired power stations do not have to be dismantled to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

Coal has an 80 per cent share of electricity generation in Australia, which is also the world’s largest exporter of coal. The IEA’s recently-published World Energy Outlook indicates that coal will continue to be an important fuel in the electricity sector.

The Callide Oxyfuel project involves retrofitting CS Energy’s Callide A power station near Biloela with oxyfuel technology. Carbon dioxide (CO2) captured from the plant will be sequestered in geological formations near the plant.

The project has been labelled a project of significance by the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, of which Australia is a member. It has received financial support from the governments of Queensland, Australia and Japan, as well as from Australia’s coal industry.

“The Callide Oxyfuel project represents a new way to make an existing coal-fired power station produce cleaner electricity,” said Dr. Chris Spero, the project’s director. “Our demonstration will prove oxyfuel’s suitability for application to existing and new coal-fired power stations.”

CS Energy and its project partners – Schlumberger and Xstrata Coal as well as Japanese firms IHI, J-Power and Mitsui & Co. – aim to start generating electricity from the oxyfuel process in 2010 and geosequestration in 2011. They say that although there are other oxyfuel demonstration projects in the world, this will be the first to ‘bolt-on’ the CO2 capture technology to an existing power station.

The Callide Oxyfuel project aims to prove how two technologies can be combined to achieve near zero greenhouse gas emissions from coal fired electricity generation, and will also assess the potential commercial applications of the technologies.

“This is about combining our intellectual and policy firepower, and working with industry towards a cleaner, greener energy future,” said Queensland’s Mines and Energy Minister Geoff Wilson. “While we push ahead with renewable energy solutions and gas-fired power, coal will continue to play an important role in providing the power we need to get on with our daily lives.

“Our key challenge is to use it in an environmentally-sustainable way. What’s happening here today at Callide is a step in the right direction.”

The project involves the retrofit of oxyfuel technology to the 30 MW Callide A unit. The oxyfuel process burns pulverised coal in a mixture of oxygen and recirculated waste gases to create a high concentration of CO2 in the flue gases.

The CO2 is then captured, purified and compressed to liquid form, ready for transport to an underground site. The demonstration at Callide will last five years.

CS Energy says it is currently assessing the suitability of deep geological formations to the west of Biloela as sequestration sites.

The oxyfuel combustion process was first conceived in Japan in 1974 and has been tested in small-scale projects in Japan, the USA and Europe. The technology to be installed at Callide has the potential to capture 90 per cent of the plant's greenhouse gas emissions, it is believed.




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