ALSTOM to build clean power plants

[jean63]

Read in the forum ALSTOM from boursorama. I don't know the source ==>

23/10/2007 - 16:28:00
Alstom: hopes to offer clean power plants by 2014

#Alstom| announces that by 2014, the company should be able to offer electricity production plants that respect the environmental constraints linked to global warming. Several technologies will be validated in six pilot projects already underway in Germany, the United States, Norway, Sweden and France. Other projects are also under study and will be announced soon.

On the three main technological paths that should make it possible to capture the CO2 emitted by a power plant burning fossil fuels, Alstom Power Systems favored post-combustion and oxy-combustion. The main reason for this choice being that the capture technologies must be able to adapt to existing power plants, as well as to the many power plants, mainly coal-fired, planned by 2030 to meet the growing demand of emerging countries. The solutions adopted by Alstom meet this criterion

[jean63]

And here are details on these plants and their location (Hopefully this is not a publicity stunt...). Me it suits me, while Alstom builds TGV and power plants (soon) clean, the action rises.

The only problem is that in 2014 it may be too late for the planet

Alstom: explores two CO2 capture technologies
Concrete offers in 2014...

Alstom said this morning that it had been engaged "for several years" in an intensive research and development program to meet the technological and economic challenges posed by the capture of C02 resulting from the production of electricity from fossil fuels. By 2014, the company should be able to offer power generation plants that respect the environmental constraints linked to global warming, she believes.
Several technologies will be validated in six pilot projects already underway in Germany, the United States, Norway, Sweden and France. Other projects are also under study and will be announced soon. At the same time, Alstom has launched the development of several technologies in order to ensure control of capture solutions that combine the best energy efficiency with an installation and maintenance cost that is acceptable for operators.

Of the three main technological paths to capture the CO2 emitted by a power plant burning fossil fuels, Alstom Power Systems has favored post-combustion and oxy-combustion. The main reason for this choice being that the capture technologies must be able to adapt to existing power plants, as well as to the many power plants, mainly coal-fired, planned by 2030 to meet the growing demand of emerging countries. The solutions adopted by Alstom fully meet this criterion.

Post-combustion capture has the advantage of being the most advanced process today and of being easily adaptable to the very large installed base of coal-fired power plants. It consists of selectively separating the CO2 from combustion fumes using a solvent (amine or refrigerated ammonia). "The latest results of our test bench research have shown that the refrigerated ammonia-based capture process developed by Alstom can eliminate up to 90% of the CO2 present in combustion fumes. This technology can also apply as much to coal-fired power stations as to natural gas-fired combined-cycle power stations", explains the group, which should start pilot tests and launch industrial demonstrators from the end of this year, will establish the energy balance of this technology.

The oxy-combustion process consists of burning a solid fuel in oxygen instead of air. The fumes resulting from this oxy-combustion are mainly composed of water and CO2, which is therefore easy to capture at the end of the process. The main challenge of oxy-combustion technology today lies in lowering the cost of large-scale production of oxygen. This path was chosen by Alstom, because it is the one that presents the least technological risks a priori. Indeed, the cryogenic separation of oxygen has been used in industry for a long time, and combustion with oxygen does not present a major technological challenge.
Oxy-combustion should also be able to adapt to existing power plants, under conditions currently under study. In addition, major technological breakthroughs are in preparation, with in particular the chemical loop, a very innovative and very promising oxy-combustion process, currently on test bench at Alstom. This process will avoid the costly use of cryogenic oxygen.

The third way, called pre-combustion, consists in transforming, by gasification, a fuel rich in carbon (coal or petroleum products) into synthesis gas composed of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Several transformation and purification steps are then necessary to transform this gas, eliminate the CO2 and obtain a flow of pure hydrogen which will then be burned in a combined cycle power plant. Although gasification is a well-known industrial process, the production of electricity from hydrogen on a large scale still remains to be validated, as well as the reliability of a very complex integration of several technologies similar to refining and petrochemicals. Alstom has not retained this path of development for the moment, because it cannot respond to the capture of CO2 in existing power plants, will be costly in terms of investment and very difficult to implement for reliable electricity production.



Source:Boursier.com 24/10/2007 11:40

Subject to be moved to the right place??

[Christophe]

The topic is in the right place.

Too late for the planet is not really the question... because Alstom will surely not have the exclusivity of the constructions all over the world...

So if it's to build 2 or 3 clean power plants in Europe while the USA will continue to build them with technology from the 50s (or almost)... it won't save anything