Facts:

Australia’s national science agency CSIRO is working with Delta Electricity to test post-combustion carbon capture at a pilot plant at Munmorah Power Station on the New South Wales (NSW) Central Coast.

The A$5-million pilot became operational in February 2009, and evaluation of the capture technology and suitable CO2 absorbents will continue until 2013. In particular, the project is looking at adapting the ammonia absorption process for Australian coal-fired power plants.

Munmorah PCC is one of two Australian pilots being run by CSIRO as part of the Asia Pacific Partnership (APP) on Clean Development and Climate’s project CFE-06-06, which is testing post-combustion capture for coal-fired power plants. The second pilot is Tarong PCC. [hyperlink to this proj].

Financing

Part-funding for the pilot scheme has been provided by the Australian Coal Association’s COAL21 Fund – administered by ACALET – which has allocated A$50 million to pilot and demonstration projects in NSW. There is also support through the APP.

Timing

The current pilot project runs until 2013 and the planned larger-scale demonstration plant is expected to be operational by 2015. In August 2010, the project reported on the completion of further trials with knowledge gained from previous testing successfully applied to the pilot plant.

More information and press releases

NewGenCoal webpage on Munmorah pilot
COAL21 handout showing funding allocations
Delta commitment to reducing GHGs
APP project roster with links to project update

Storage:

The plant is currently capturing - and releasing - up to 3000 tonnes per year of CO2. The results will feed into the development of an A$150 million, large-scale post-combustion capture and storage project in NSW, which is scheduled for start-up in 2015. This aims to capture up to 100,000 tonnes a year of CO2, and will include the transport of captured gas and storage within geological formations that are still to be selected. To this end, the NSW government has begun a drilling programme in the region, targeting four potential CO2 storage sites within the state. Transport and storage of CO2 is not part of the current project.

Companies involved

Main contact person:

• Paul Feron, (CSIRO, PCC science leader)