Total SA (Total) energy firm has completed an upgrade of an existing gas-fired boiler with carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology at a power plant in Lacq, France, making the power station the first in the world to feature CCS technology, media reported. The upgrade is significant as it is a vital step towards carbon emission reduction from fossil-fuel power plants. The EUR60 million Lacq project will convey and store 60,000 tons of carbon dioxide yearly in the depleted gas field at Rousse.
The plant is the first to connect together all elements of the carbon capture chain from burning natural gas to isolating carbon dioxide from flue gases and concealing it underground.
Reutilizing an existing pipeline that has been conveying natural gas from Rousse to Lacq for five decades, Total intends on pushing the carbon dioxide from the power station in the other route, infusing the gas into the Rousse reservoir at a 4,500m depth. The Lacq project will operate for 24 months, after which engineers will supervise the Rousse gas field to reveal that the carbon dioxide stays securely trapped inside.
At Lacq, Total has installed oxyfuel technology into one of the station’s 30 MW gas-fired boilers, where the fossil fuel is burned in an environment enriched with oxygen. The resultant exhaust gas is subsequently compiled almost totally of water vapor and carbon dioxide, which can be effortlessly separated and stored.
CCS technology could save the earth from the potential increased utilization of coal in power plants throughout the world. At full potential, it could capture up to 90% of a power station’s carbon emissions and, even though every part of the capture, transportation and storage procedure is already verified and in use, only the Schwarze Pumpe station has put the entire chain together until now.
Philippe Paelinck of Alstom, the engineering firm that designed and constructed the CCS machinery at Lacq, stated that the experiment was a significant achievement. We first proved the feasibility of retrofitting an installation to carbon capture and storage, but also this will be the first demonstration in Europe of CCS with [existing] integrated CO2 pipeline transportation and storage.
Luc de Marliave, climate change coordinator at Total stated that the energy firm decided to test oxyfuel as it could likely save costs in future. Our calculations showed that, with oxycombustion in that type of application, you could reduce the cost of capture – which is a large part of the cost of the CCS chain – around two-thirds of the cost roughly. For just capture, existing post combustion technologies would cost you something like 70 euros per tonne of CO2. Oxycombustion could reduce this to 35 euros per tonne.