Carbon capture initiative for gas-fired power plants
ETI to fund the development of technologies that could reduce operating costs
- Published in News.
The project will see CCS technology fitted to gas-fired power stations
The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) is encouraging companies to develop cheaper carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.
The organisation is searching for firms to take part in a multi-million pound project to develop and demonstrate low cost CCS technologies specifically for gas-fired power stations.
It expects to invest in the initial development of two promising ‘next-generation’ technologies before selecting the best one for large-scale testing at a Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) plant.
The overall aim of the project is to develop a technology with the potential to make a substantial reduction in capital and operating costs in the capture plant. This should be ready to catch the first wave of CCS implementation in CCGTs, which is expected to occur in the 2020s and early 2030s.
The ETI said that the roll out of CCS in the 2020s and 2030s will require new capture systems, which significantly cut the capital and operating cost penalties associated with current technologies.
Bidders on the project will need to demonstrate how their approach would enable their technology to reach a state of development that would allow future investors to start engineering the design of a power station using this next generation technology in 2015, with operation commencing in 2020.
ETI chief executive Dr David Clarke, said: “Gas remains the UK’s primary energy source and our estimates suggest we will have around 30GW of CCGTcapacity by 2030.
“Even though gas is much cleaner than coal, achieving the UK’s CO2 reduction targets in the longer term will still require CCS to be fitted to all fossil-fuelled power stations by the 2030s.
“The contribution of gas fired stations to the energy mix in the UK hasgrown and appears set to continue to grow rapidly over the next decade.Although work is now being done on CCS technology demonstrations the UK efforthas been largely focussed on coal so far.
“Through CCS technology, fossil fuels can be economically used in an environmentally acceptable way to provide significant quantities of competitively priced energy on demand and so will be an important contribution to the energy mix in the future.”
The ETI has completed an analysis of likely future UK requirements for CCS new build and retrofit power generation and has examined the economic potential of the most promising ‘next generation’ technologies. It has already commissioned a project looking at the next generation of CCS for coal-fired power stations, which is expected to start in the autumn.
A Request for Proposals giving full details of the project and what the ETI expects from potential bidders can be found at www.energytechnologies.co.uk
The deadline for the notification of intention to submit a proposal is 27 May and all proposals must be received by 27 June.