The project was awarded funding by the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME) in 2010.
This pilot is installed in unit 4 at the EDF thermal power station in Le Havre. The technology, provided by Alstom in partnership with The Dow Chemical Co. and chosen by EDF, consists in cleaning the flue gas with UCARSOLTM FGC-3000 amine solvent from Dow, which is the base component of the reagent used to separate CO2 from the flue gas. For this pilot unit, Alstom and Dow have deployed an advanced configuration for the process, specifically developed to minimise energy consumption.
The objective, using this research prototype, is to capture about 1 tonne of CO2 per hour. The CO2 will be released into the atmosphere, the aim of the project being to test the CO2 capture process itself and not the storage. Following technical testing, EDF will analyse the cost implications of the process.
A dozen engineers from the Research and Development teams at EDF and Alstom are driving the tests. The intent of these tests is to confirm the predicted quantity of energy and amine solvent required to operate the unit, so as to assess whether the process is worthwhile from a cost and an environmental standpoint. They will also look at how the unit performs in an industrial setting, as well as how flexible it is to use within a fully operating power plant. Such tests represent a crucial step in developing efficient industrial solutions for capturing CO2.