Dr. Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, Federal Minister of Economics and Technology, and Dr. Juergen Ruettgers, State Premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, officially put into operation the pilot scrubbing plant for power station flue gases together with Werner Stump, Chief Executive of the Rhein-Erft District, and the Chief Executive Officers Dr. Juergen Hambrecht (BASF SE), Professor Dr. Wolfgang Reitzle (Linde AG) and Dr. Juergen Grossmann (RWE AG) at the Coal Innovation Centre of RWE Power in Niederaussem. The project’s aim is to advance the development of a technology that is key to achieving climate-friendly power generation. 40 % of the 9 million Euro joint project by BASF, Linde and RWE is being financed by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology.
The first tests at the pilot plant already delivered promising results in July 2009. The pilot plant is capable of capturing roughly 300 kg of CO2 per hour from a partial flow of power station flue gases. Capture efficiency is 90 %. All aspects of CO2 scrubbing will be investigated at the plant under realistic conditions. In this way the companies hope to gather experience for later large-scale plants that will be retrofitted in modern coal- or gas-fired power stations from 2020. The use of captured carbon dioxide is the subject of other research activities.
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