The companies agreed to build a Cansolv integrated sulphur dioxide (SO2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) capture demonstration system within the power station, subject to planning permission from the Vale of Glamorgan Council.
At 3MW in size, the plant will be at least eight times the size of existing post-combustion projects in the UK and will be capable of testing the process on emissions from a full-scale working power station.
The Cansolv system has been designed to capture 50 tonnes per day of CO2 from a slipstream of the flue gas at Aberthaw. Cansolv Technologies, part of the Shell Group, has developed the technology.
Dave Carlton, RWE npower station development manager, said: “The Aberthaw plant will enable us to test this technology on an industrial scale. We believe carbon capture and storage can play a significant part in reducing carbon emissions and the system pioneered by Cansolv has impressed us enough to want to put it to the test as soon as possible on a working coal-fired power station.”
Cansolv Technologies will design the modularised plant that will be operational for a two-year period. Subject to planning permission being granted, construction is expected to start in January 2010 with commissioning expected in the first part of 2011.
The pilot project forms a part of RWE group’s global research and development strategy. RWE already has operational post-combustion CO2 capture plants at Didcot power station in Oxfordshire and at Niederaussem in Germany.
The company is also part of a joint venture testing the technology at the Mountaineer plant in Virginia in the US, and is has plans for a large scale post combustion plant at a new coal-fired station at Eemshaven in Netherlands.
