Alstom said that in the first phase, it will design and construct a pilot carbon capture plant at the existing Unit-12 of the Belchatow power plant, which would capture approximately 100,000 tonnes per year of CO2 using Alstom’s amines technology. The pilot will be jointly operated by Alstom and Elektrownia Belchatow and is expected to be in operation by mid-2011.
During the second phase, Alstom and PGE plan to build a larger carbon capture and storage (CCS) project to capture CO2 produced by the new 858MW lignite-fired unit currently being built by Alstom for Elektrownia Belchatow. This CCS plant will be in operation by 2015, said the company.
Lignite and hard coal are the mainstay of the Polish power generation sector and the reduction in CO2 emissions resulting from the Belchatow CCS project is expected to be higher than one million tonnes per year.
In collaboration with The Dow Chemical Company, Alstom is currently developing an amine-based scrubbing technology for the power industry and for similar industrial sources that produce exhaust or flue gases with high oxygen content. This process will offer significant reductions in the amount of energy required for CO2 separation and capture compared to using standard amines, claims the company.
Alstom is engaged in power production services and air quality control systems. It works with all energy forms (coal, gas, nuclear, fuel-oil, hydropower, wind) and also associated with environmental protection (reduction of CO2 emissions, reduction of nitrogen oxide emissions).
