Loy Yang PCC Project

Facts:

CSIRO announced in August 2008 that Australia’s first post-combustion CO2 capture (PPC) pilot was performed at Loy Yang Power Station in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley.

The 10.5 meter-high pilot plant is designed to capture up to 1000 ton of CO2 per annum from the power station’s exhaust-gas flues. Future trials will involve the use of a range of different CO2 -capture liquids.

The project is part of the Latrobe Valley Post Combustion Capture Project – a joint collaboration between Loy Yang Power, International Power Hazelwood, government and researchers from CSIRO’s Energy Transformed Flagship and the CO2CRC (including Monash and Melbourne Universities). The Loy Yang component of the project is supported by the Victorian Government for A$ 2.5 million through the Energy Technology Innovation Strategy. The overall cost is around A$ 5 million.

Latrobe Valley Post Combustion Capture Project (LVPCC)

The ETIS Brown Coal R&D program is one a several components to the overall ETIS program which includes support for renewables, large scale demonstration of low emissions technologies and enabling R&D. The LVPCC is a collaboration by Loy Yang Power, International Power, CSIRO and CO2CRC to create a multisite, multi-technology post combustion capture (PCC) hub to identify CCS options for the Victorian brown coal generators.

The broad aims of the project are:
- Identification of cost-effective options for reduction of CO2-emissions in Victorian brown coal fired power stations, both retrofit and new build
- Focus on post-combustion capture of CO2
- Determine effects of CO2-concentration, moisture content, SOx, NOx and fly-ash on sorbent systems and novel separation technologies
- Technical and economical assessment based on results from pilots and laboratory research

The project is based at two generation sites, Loy Yang A, operated by Loy Yang Power and Hazelwood operated by International Power and continues till June 2010. This project comprises the Hazelwood Carbon Capture Project and Loy Yang Post-Combustion project.