Siemens and TNO Sign Cooperation Agreement to Develop Flue-Gas Carbon-Capture Technology

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Siemens Energy (Erlangen, Germany), a subsidiary of global engineering major Siemens AG (NYSE:SI) (Munich, Germany) and a leading global energy provider offering a range of products, services and solutions for power generation, transmission and distribution, has joined with TNO (Delft, Netherlands), an applied scientific research organization, to produce a second-generation carbon-capture technology based on amino acid salt. The companies signed a cooperation agreement with the objective to further enhance the technology and make it ready for marketing on an industrial scale. Research and development of carbon-capture technologies is gaining momentum in Europe, with many countries striving to achieve zero emissions in conventional coal-fired power plants.

Both companies have conducted extensive research in the field of carbon-dioxide (CO2) capture and storage. According to the agreement, Siemens and TNO will construct a pilot plant by 2014 to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of this proprietary second-generation CO2-capture process developed by Siemens, in the Frankfurt Hoechst industrial park. The post-combustion carbon-capture process involves treating the flue gas from the plant using amino acid salt as a cleaning agent. The CO2-free gas is then released back into the atmosphere through a stack. The benefits of this technology are low energy requirements, environmental compatibility and minimal loss of cleaning agent. Siemens and TNO propose to leverage each other's expertise with an objective to optimize the process, reduce operational costs and achieve power savings.

Michael Suess, CEO of Siemens Energy's Fossil Power Generation business unit, said that efficient carbon capture and storage technologies will determine the sustained use of fossil fuels for power generation in the future. Fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas form a significant portion of the energy mix and will continue to be used in the future in order to meet the increasing demand for power. The challenge is to adhere to emission norms by reducing CO2 levels from coal combustion. Siemens is collaborating with domestic and international players from the industry and research organizations for developing the carbon-capture process.

Siemens is also currently building a pilot CO2-capture plant in collaboration with German power utility company E.ON AG (OTC:EONGY) (Dusseldorf, Germany) at the Staudinger power plant in Grosskrotzenburg near Hanau, Germany. The plant is being set up at an investment of $12.6 million. The demonstration plant is scheduled to begin operations later this year and will be subject to real operating conditions at Unit 5 of the power plant. Flue gases from the hard-coal-fired block 5 will be treated at the carbon-capture plant. The companies plan to operate the pilot plant until the end of 2010 in an effort to develop environmentally friendly technology for power generation. The technology needs to be tested before it can be extended for industrial use. While the pilot plant has a capacity of 1 megawatt (MW), commercial plants are expected to have a capacity of at least 400 MW.

E.ON is also planning to implement large-scale CO2 capture and storage for coal-fired thermal power plants from 2020. The European Union has mandated all fossil-fuel-based power plants should adhere to zero-emission norms by 2020 if they intend to produce power using coal or natural gas.

Siemens Energy, one of the fastest growing divisions of Siemens, is focusing on increasing its product offerings and solutions for the environment sector. In 2008, the company's environmental portfolio achieved total revenues of about $26.4 billion, which was nearly a quarter of Siemens' revenues.

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