Alstom and Poland's PGE Sign Agreement to Cut CO2 Emissions

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Alstom S.A. (EPA:ELO) (Levallois-Perret, France), a global leader in energy and transport infrastructure, has signed a memorandum of understanding with PGE Elektrownia Belchatow S.A. (Belchatow, Poland) to reduce carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions in Poland by developing and implementing carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. PGE operates the largest conventional power plant in Europe with a total generation capacity of 4,400 megawatts (MW).

Alstom plans to implement CCS technology as a pilot in the first phase of the project at Unit 12 of the Belchatow power plant in Poland. Alstom will design and construct the pilot plant, which is estimated to capture 100,000 tons of CO2 per year. Alstom will employ its advanced amines technology to restrict CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. Alstom and PGE will operate the plant together once it is commissioned in the second half of 2011.

Alstom is in the process of constructing an 858-MW coal-fired unit for PGE. In the second phase of the CO2 reduction project, Alstom will build a full-fledged CCS plant to capture CO2 emissions from the new thermal power plant. This CCS plant is slated to be operational by 2015.

Poland's power industry depends on lignite and hard coal as sources for generation, which leads to high polluting CO2 emissions. Implementing the CCS plant in Belchatow will reduce these emissions by nearly 1 million tons a year. With rich coal reserves, the country plans to focus on generating power using clean coal technologies such as coal gasification.

The European Union (EU) had initiated a flagship program in 2007 that aims at reducing CO2 emissions by 60% by 2050 to combat climate change. One of the ways identified to achieve this target was through CCS technologies. According to the flagship program, it was decided that 10-12 full-scale CCS pilot plants would be set up across Europe by 2015. These plants would employ various CCS technologies so that they become a commercial viable option by 2020. The power plant in Belchatow is the single largest CO2-emitting plant in Europe. The Belchatow CCS plant is one of the projects that falls under the EU's flagship program. PGE has a reputation for executing large CCS installations.

The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW) (Midland, Michigan), a global leader in manufacturing chemicals, plastics and agricultural products, is developing an advanced amine-based scrubbing technology in collaboration with Alstom for the power industry and for other industrial sources that emanate exhaust or gases with high oxygen content. The advanced amine technology is expected to significantly save energy required for CO2 separation and capture process compared to using standard amines.

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