Hazelwood Carbon Capture Project
Brief description:
Comments
A post-combustion capture plant is operating at International Power’s Hazelwood Power Station. The solvent capture plant began operation in 2009 and is capturing and chemically sequestering CO2 at a nominal rate of 10,000 tpa of CO2. This project is partly funded by the Australian Government under LETDF and the Victorian Government under ETIS LSDP.
Facts:
Hazelwood capture plant
International Power’s post-combustion CO2 capture pilot plant at Hazelwood power station in Latrobe Valley began operating in July 2009. It has been capturing around 25 tonnes of CO2 a day, or 10,000 tonnes per year, from one 200MW unit.
The 1675MW facility burns brown coal from the adjacent Hazelwood mine, a source that produces comparatively higher amounts of CO2. The capture plant has been retrofitted to one of the power station’s eight 200MW units. The captured CO2 is removed from flue gases using ammonia absorption technology. It is then mixed with ash water to form calcium carbonate, which can be used by various industries, including the building trade. Excess CO2 is processed for industrial gas markets.
The capture plant was designed and built by Process Group, and project partner CO2CRC has provided technological support. CO2CRC is also working with the operator at Hazelwood to test three different types of CO2 capture technology as part of the CO2CRC H3 Capture project and the wider goals of the Latrobe Valley Post Combustion Capture Project.
Latrobe Valley Post Combustion Capture Project
This research project, focused mainly on Latrobe Valley in Victoria, is exploring commercially-viable methods of reducing CO2 emissions at brown coal-fired plants. CO2CRC, with researchers from Melbourne and Monash universities, are working with Loy Yang Power, International Power and national science agency CSIRO on seven linked research, plant-testing and evaluation studies. Funding of A$2.5 million towards the A$5.6 million project has come from Victoria’s ETIS fund. The project is based at two power plants - Loy Yang A and Hazelwood - and other work is taking place at CSIRO and both universities.
Financing
The total cost of the Hazelwood pilot project is A$369 million. The Australian government has contributed A$50 million through its Low Emissions Technology Demonstration Fund (LETDF), and the Victorian government’s Energy Technology Innovation Strategy (ETIS) has given A$30 million.
Timing
The capture plant started up in July 2009. No information is available on the expected duration of the pilot project.
More information and press releases
International Power press release 8 July 2009