Alstom to build carbon capture and storage pilot plant in Poland

POLAND - Alstom and PGE Elektrownia Belchatow S.A. have signed a memorandum of understanding for the development and implementation of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology at the Belchatow power plant in Poland.

In a first phase, Alstom will design and construct a pilot carbon capture plant at the existing unit 12 of the Belchatow power plant, which would capture approximately 100,000 tonnes per year of CO2 using Alstom's advanced amines technology. The pilot will be jointly operated by Alstom and Elektrownia Belchatow and is expected to be in operation by mid 2011.

During the second phase, Alstom and PGE plan to build a larger CCS project to capture CO2 produced by the new 858 MW lignite-fired unit currently being built by Alstom for Elektrownia Belchatów. This CCS plant will be in operation by 2015.

Lignite and hard coal are the mainstay of the Polish power generation sector and the reduction in CO2 emissions resulting from the Belchatow CCS project would be higher than 1million tonnes per year.

The Belchatow CCS initiative is one of the candidate projects to the EU Flagship Programme for Carbon Capture and Storage. Belchatów is a Polish leader in implementing large-scale CCS installations.

In collaboration with The Dow Chemical Company, a global gas treating technology leader, Alstom is currently developing an advanced amine based scrubbing technology for the power industry and for similar industrial sources that produce exhaust or flue gases with high oxygen content.

This new advanced amine process will offer significant reductions in the amount of energy required for CO2 separation and capture compared to using standard amines.