Pre-combustion research to slash power plant emissions
Much has been made of the potential for carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology to help the EU slash its greenhouse gas emissions. However, there remains an urgent need for further R&D into advanced pre-combustion capture techniques to substantially reduce emissions from fossil fuel power plants. The EU-backed project 'Enabling advanced pre-combustion capture techniques and plants' (Decarbit) is looking to improve or develop new pre-combustion technologies, with the overall objective of enabling zero-emission pre-combustion power plants by 2020 with a capture cost of less than 15 EUR/ton and the highest feasible capture rate. The project team is also keen to encourage further industrial uptake of CCS through its industrial contact group. Likewise, they believe Decarbit will strengthen the competitiveness of European industry and the economy by maintaining and reinforcing its position as the world leader in CCS technologies. The researchers have chosen to structure the R&D activities around five sub-projects, namely system integration and optimisation, advanced pre-combustion carbon dioxide (CO2) separation, advanced oxygen separation technologies, enabling technologies for pre-combustion, and pre-combustion pilots. All of these projects include theoretical and experimental investigations, leading to extended pilot testing.
