Doosan Babcock today announced a major step towards making full-scale carbon dioxide capture and storage a reality with the opening of the world’s largest OxyCoal™ Clean Combustion Test Facility at Renfrew, by Joan Ruddock MP, the Minister of State for the department of energy & climate change.
The new facility is demonstrating Doosan Babcock’s OxyCoal Clean Combustion system for the first time on a full-size 40MWt burner. The facitlity is a collaboration of Doosan Babcock, the UK Government (DECC), a prime sponsor Scottish and Southern Energy, a group of seven sponsors (Air Products, Drax, DONG, EDF, E.ON, ScottishPower and Vattenfall), and is supported by UK Coal. The technology being demonstrated at the site will be suitable for future installation in new or existing coal power plants.
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is considered by many to be a vital part of an ongoing balanced energy portfolio and is expected to play a large part in reducing UK emissions. This project marks an important milestone in the development of CCS and will help the UK secure its share of the estimated £2-4 billion a year created by the global CCS market by 2030.
Energy minister Joan Ruddock, said “Cleaning up coal power is a must if we’re to meet our climate change goals whilst keeping the lights on. The development of CCS offers high quality jobs and export opportunities for the UK which is why we’re supporting this OxyCoal project with £2.2 million of funding. Our proposals on coal are some of the most radical in the world and will help ensure the UK leads the way on CCS.”
Iain Miller, CEO of Doosan Babcock, said “The OxyCoal project places Doosan Babcock at the forefront of carbon capture development and we are delighted to acknowledge the positive high level endorsement of the project by DECC and our sponsors. The demonstration has been made a reality by the hard work of our project team and will enable Doosan Babcock, as a key carbon capture innovator, to lead the field both at a UK and global level in the future. With our product portfolio now including both OxyCoal and post combustion capture technologies, Doosan Babcock will be ready to deliver very low emission power technology to our customers around the world as fast as the market for these products becomes available.”
Ian Marchant, chief executive, Scottish and Southern Energy, said "The Low Carbon Transition Plan announced last week sets a great deal of store by the successful deployment of carbon capture and storage technology. The pace of progress in recent years has been disappointing, but I hope that renewed impetus from government allied to the type of co-operation evident in the OxyCoal project will bring us closer to the ultimate goal of successful deployment of large-scale carbon capture and storage technology here in the UK and elsewhere."
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