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On May 29, 2006, the groundbreaking of the Vattenfall pilot plant took place. The pilot plant is an important milestone to reach the goal of commercial concepts for carbon capture and storage at large 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 CCS project. The pilot plant is located near the existing lignite fired 1600 MW power plant in Schwarze Pumpe, Germany. Operation at the pilot plant is scheduled to start mid 2008. The plant is scheduled to be operate for at least 10 years.
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 energy demanding air separation step. 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. Even though the focus of the pilot plant is on oxyfuel combustion capture, Vattenfall continues research on both post-combustion and pre-combustion capture technologies. All three options will be considered when the next step of scaling-up the pilot plant to a demonstration plant is taken.
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