Toshiba Corporation is to accelerate the development of its carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology by installing a pilot plant at a power generation facility in Omuta City, Japan.
The Japan-based company will design and develop a CCS system capturing 10 tons/day of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the boiler flue gas of the Mikawa power plant, a coal-fired facility owned by Sigma Power Ariake Co. Ltd. Construction of the CCS plant will start in spring 2009, with commissioning and validation testing scheduled for August 2009.
The pilot facility will help to prove the system performance of Toshiba’s post-combustion, chemical absorption CCS technology, as well as facilitate a wide range of tests aimed at accumulating the know-how required for the design of a utility-scale power plant application. These include the effects of the thermal power plant flue gas contents, such as SOx (oxides of sulphur), on the operation of the system when integrated with other power plant equipment.
Toshiba hopes that this project, and other similar ones that it is developing elsewhere in Japan and overseas, will help it to become a front-runner in CCS technology commercialisation. It says that it will accelerate its research and development efforts to support the early establishment of its CCS business.
A key goal for successful commercialisation of a CCS system is stable operation and the minimisation of economic impact on a power plant’s operation costs. Toshiba says that its amine solvent-based technology consumes minimal energy during CO2 separation and capture, and has been validated in bench-scale tests.
In October Toshiba established a new CCS development and promotion organisation to help accelerate its business in this field. It expects demand for CCS systems for thermal power plants to grow from around 2015 onwards.
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