Live web-camera with an overview of the pilot plant in Schwarze Pumpe. The web-camera is updated automatically.

The Schwarze Pumpe pilot plant

On May 29, 2006, the groundbreaking ceremony of the Schwarze Pumpe pilot plant took place and two years later on September 9, 2008, the pilot plant was inaugurated.

The pilot plant is an important milestone to reach the goal of commercial concepts for carbon capture and storage at coal fired power plants by 2015-2020. It will be the first pilot plant in the world to use the Oxyfuel capture method.

In 2005 Vattenfall decided on building the 30 MW Oxyfuel pilot plant, an investment of EUR 50 M. The pilot plant is the first visual sign of Vattenfall's project on CCS. The pilot plant is located near the existing lignite fired 1600 MW power plant in Schwarze Pumpe, Germany. Operation at the pilot plant started mid 2008. The plant is planned to operate for at least 10 years.

Can Oxyfuel combustion be the method of choice to capture carbon dioxide?

The purpose of the pilot plant is to validate and improve technology around capturing carbon dioxide. There are three main methods for capturing carbon dioxide. Vattenfall has chosen to test the Oxyfuel capture technology at the pilot plant since it builds on existing power-cycle technology. It is also currently the most promising method with regard to costs for capturing carbon dioxide at power plants. A challenge, however, is the air separation step that demands large amounts of energy.

Carbon dioxide captured in the pilot plant will have the right properties to be transported and permanently stored deep underground. Vattenfall is currently searching for a suitable storage site to be connected to the pilot plant.

The outcome of the first year’s test phase

One of the most important results from the first year of operation is the fact that the principle of the Oxyfuel process could be verified on an industriallyrelevant scale. The pilot plant thus works through the entire Oxyfuel process chain, from the air separation unit to CO₂ purification and compression.

The results show that the CO₂ can have a high level of purity, due to the extensive cleaning in the pilot CO₂  purification unit. The achievable capture rate is greater than 90%, which means that more than 90% of the CO₂ that enters liquefaction can be separated from the flue gas.