German utility RWE has formed a partnership with five companies to deliver its planned carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration project in the UK.
The five partners – BOC, Cansolv Technologies, IM Skaugen, The Shaw Group and Tullow Oil – will be able to provide the full range of expertise required of the project, which involves construction and demonstration of a pilot-scale CCS plant in Wales with RWE npower, the company’s UK subsidiary.
RWE npower is in the process of developing a proposal for the UK government’s CCS competition, which aims to demonstrate CCS on a commercial scale. The new partnership will be included in its proposal, says RWE, and is an important step forward in reducing its carbon intensity.
“CCS is currently unproven at the level needed for full scale power generation, but if it can be demonstrated to work, the potential for global CO2 reductions is huge,” said RWE npower CEO Andy Duff. “Our new project partners have the experience, skill and commitment to meet the challenges of this new technology.”
BOC is a subsidiary of The Linde Group, with which RWE signed an agreement in 2007 for development of CO2 scrubbing technologies. Cansolv Technologies is a provider of advanced flue gas desulphurization and combustion-based CO2 capture solutions and will be involved in the development of the technical solution for post-combustion capture (PCC).
Cansolv Technologies’ CEO, Bernard West, said: “The project will prove the technical feasibility and establish a credible economic benchmark for PCC, two important milestones in accelerating deployment of this technology to reduce carbon emissions from fossil fuel power plants.”
Oil company Tullow will be involved in demonstrating the use of depleted North Sea oil and gas fields for carbon storage, while IM Skaugen, a marine transportation services company, will be responsible for transport of the caputred carbon.
RWE announced last year that it would develop a 1 MW CCS pilot project in Wales. It plans to have the plant operational by 2010 and will then scale up the technology to 100 MW, operating from its planned clean coal plant in Tilbury, Essex.
Potential participants in the UK government’s CCS competition have until the end of March to submit proposals for the pre-qualification phase. The preferred bidder will be announced in mid-2009.
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