Siemens Awarded USD8.9 million Grant from Department of Energy to Build its First CO2 Capture Project for Coal-fired Power Plants in the U.S.A.
Jul 19, 2010 – This project will demonstrate new POSTCAP technology, utilizing salt as a solvent for CO2 absorption. Siemens Energy is planning to design, install, and operate a pilot plant for treating a slipstream (1 MW equivalent) at the Tampa Electric Big Bend Station to demonstrate POSTCAP technology for post-combustion CO2 gas capture. The primary goal of this project will be to reduce the large amounts of energy traditionally needed to operate carbon capture technologies. But more importantly, Siemens’ POSTCAP technology will utilize an amino acid salt formulation as a solvent for CO2 absorption. The usage of this nontoxic, biodegradable solvent will result in a more environmentally friendly process.
Tampa Electric’s coal-fired power plant is located in southeastern Hillsborough County, Florida, and has an installed capacity of 1,892 megawatt (MWe). This new carbon capture demonstration is expected to treat a slipstream of the flue gas from Tampa Electric’s Big Bend Station and to capture 90% of its CO2. This demonstration will be installed downstream of an existing Siemens Wet FGD System (processing 890 MW of Flue Gas in a single absorber). The piloting plant is scheduled to be in operation in 2013.
The Obama Administration has made a goal of developing cost-effective deployment of CCS technologies within 10 years, with an objective of bringing 5 to 10 commercial demonstration projects online by 2016. This pilot plant was one of 10 selected by the DOE aimed at developing advanced technologies for capturing carbon dioxide from coal combustion. It will focus on improving efficiency and reducing the added costs to electricity at power plants with carbon capture systems to less than 30 percent for a new pulverized coal plant and to 10% for a new advanced gasification plant as required by DOE.
“We chose to partner with Siemens on its post-combustion carbon capture technology, not only because of its promise in terms of energy efficiency and emissions control, but also because the process utilizes non-toxic and biodegradable solvents,” said Gordon Gillette, Tampa Electric president. “Tampa Electric is a leader in CO2 reduction and is proud to pilot this CCS technology at Big Bend.”
“Coal is still a major part of today’s energy mix – with nearly 50% of our energy currently dependent on coal. There have been some great innovations occurring in coal over the past few years, and we are excited to be on the forefront of today’s “clean coal” technology. Partnering with Tampa Electric is a great opportunity for us to bring our newest amino-acid salt-based capture technology to commercial scale,” stated Randy Zwirn, CEO of Siemens Energy’s Service Division and president and CEO of Siemens Energy, Inc. “We greatly value Tampa Electric’s support on this important CCS demonstration project.”
In September 2009 Siemens put into operation its first pilot CO2 capture plant for coal-fired power plants at the Staudinger power plant in Germany. The technology for CO2 capture from the flue gas of power plants is an important feature of Siemens’ Environmental Portfolio. In fiscal 2009, revenue from the Portfolio totaled approximately EUR23 billion, making Siemens the world’s largest supplier of environmentally friendly technologies. In the same period, the company’s products and solutions enabled customers to reduce their CO2 emissions by 210 million tons. This amount equals the combined annual CO2 emissions of New York, Tokyo, London and Berlin.
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Solar PV costs have come down dlicatamarly in the last year putting them close to grid parity with coal in sunny locations. Savannah is no New Mexico but certainly sees enough sun to power panel from March to October. To date the way to get adoption of solar going is to provide incentives through tax breaks or higher than average payments for energy put onto the grid. If the state can put incentives into place many companies such as 1BOG or SolarCity will come in and you will see a dramatic increase in adoption. For renewables to be competitive without the incentives at this time one of two things needs to happen. 1 – RE costs continue to fall until they reach parity with coal and natural gas. Or 2 – coal and natural gas either lose their incentive programs or have to pay full costs like Scott says bringing their costs up.