Consumables
Metso and Fortum in R&D co-operation around oxyfuel combustion technology
Tuesday 12. May 2009 - Metso and Fortum have joined forces in exploring oxyfuel combustion technology. Oxyfuel combustion is part of a technical concept which enables carbon capture in power and heat generation. The three-year R&D project is partly funded by Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation.
The goal of the development activity is to determine how oxyfuel combustion technology could be implemented in an industrial-sized power plant using circulating fluidized bed technology. A key feature of such boilers is that they can be operated on a wide selection of fuels, like coal and biomass separately or together as any mixture.
“Comprehensive testing will be carried out during 2010, and the results can be utilized both for modernization purposes and for the design of new power plants to create preconditions for the CO2 capture in the future. Oxyfuel combustion at power plants using circulating fluidized bed technology is a promising method for reducing CO2 emissions. During the research, Metsos 4-MW test plant in Tampere, Finland will be modified for oxyfuel combustion,” states Kari Kuukkanen, General Manager, Technology at Metso.
In the oxyfuel combustion process fuel is combusted with pure oxygen diluted with recirculated flue gas instead of air. In such case, after the cleaning the flue gas would consist mainly of CO2 and water vapor. After removal of the water vapor, CO2-gas is ready to be pressurized at the power plant, transported and stored.
“Fortum’s long term goal is to be a CO2-free energy company and we have been working towards this goal systematically for several years. This project is an important part of Fortums long-term R&D activities because the technology can be applied not only in coal-fired energy production but also in power plants using biomass as fuel. Applying CCS to biomass-fired plants would create a carbon sink”, says Marja Englund, manager of the project at Fortum.
The experimental research effort focuses on oxyfuel combustion but is a significant step in the development of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies. Carbon capture and storage is shown to be one of the key technologies for CO2 emissions reduction in energy production in numerous scenario analyses. In addition to moving towards emission-free energy production, improved energy efficiency is essential in order to reach emission reduction targets.