Foster Wheeler captures CIUDEN oxyfuel CFB contract

Foster Wheeler has been awarded a contract by Spain’s Fundación Ciudad de la Energía (CIUDEN) for the design and supply of a circulating fluidised bed (CFB) unit for testing Foster Wheeler’s new Flexi-Burn oxy-fuel CO2 capture technology.

This unit will be part of CIUDEN’s integrated carbon capture and sequestration test facility located near Endesa’s Compostilla power plant in Ponferrada, Spain. This was one of the six CCS demo projects to receive funding under the European Energy Programme for Recovery.

Foster Wheeler has received a full notice to proceed on the contract and the plant is due to be operational by the second half of 2011, with testing programmes expected to follow shortly thereafter.

Foster Wheeler will design and supply the 30 MWt Flexi-Burn CFB test unit and some auxiliary equipment and provide site advisory services for the project.

Flexi-Burn is Foster Wheeler’s version of carbon capture technology based on oxygen combustion (commonly referred to as “oxy-combustion” or “oxy-fuel”) for coal plants.

Unlike, pre-combustion or post-combustion technologies oxygen combustion technologies allow the boiler to produce a CO2 rich flue gas, thus reducing the need for expensive and energy-intensive CO2 gas separation equipment.

The CIUDEN unit will be designed to test burn a wide range of domestic (anthracite) and imported coals, as well as biomass. One of the objectives of the incorporation of this unit into the CIIUDEN test facility is to validate Foster Wheeler’s Flexi-Burn CFB technology at the required scale before proceeding to a possible full-scale demonstration plant.

It is also planned to install a 20 MWt oxyfuel PC boiler in the CIUDEN test facility in the future, as shown in process diagram, below.

CIUDEN is a CCS research and development body created by the Spanish government in 2006.