Carbon capture milestone for CSIRO in China

Just weeks out from the Olympics, the CSIRO and its Chinese partners have launched a post-combustion capture (PCC) pilot plant in Beijing that strips carbon dioxide from power station flue gases in an effort to stem climate change.

PCC uses a liquid to capture CO₂ from power station flue gases and can potentially reduce carbon dioxide emissions from existing and future coal-fired power stations by more than 85%.

The post-combustion research pilot plant at the Huaneng Beijing Co-Generation Power Plant is designed to capture 3000 tonnes per annum of CO₂.

Chief of CSIRO’s Energy Technology Division, Dr David Brockway, said the project was part of a broad program to identify ways to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector.

“Given the world’s reliance on coal, we need to find ways to make it a cleaner energy source. We’re delighted to be working with our partners in China to help find solutions to this global challenge,” Brockway said.

“In a recent visit to China, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said that China was the largest consumer of coal in the world and Australia was the world’s largest exporter of coal. As such, Australia and China should work together develop low emissions coal technologies.”

The PCC project will focus on assessing the performance of an amine-based pilot plant under Chinese conditions.

“It will allow PCC technology to be progressed in the Chinese energy sector which will have a much greater impact than operating in Australia alone,” Brockway said.

“The next steps in the research would be moving to a much larger demonstration phase, before then progressing to a full scale system.”

The installation of the PCC pilot plant in Beijing is a CSIRO Energy Transformed Flagship research project which receives funding from the Australian Government through the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate initiative (APP).

The APP program for PCC also includes a pilot plant installation at Delta Electricity’s Munmorah power station on the NSW Central Coast, with an additional Queensland site currently under negotiation.

The Australian government's APP support for PCC research is $12 million, $4 million of which supports this work in China.

CSIRO’s partners in the Beijing pilot project are China’s Huaneng Group and the Thermal Power Research Institute (TPRI).