E.ON’S current CCS activities

Abstract In May 2007, E.ON Group (E.ON) set an ambitious target for reducing the specific CO 2 emissions of the overall group’s electricity generation. By 2030, E.ON will reduce the specific CO 2 emissions to 360 grams per kilowatt hour, half the 1990 figure. Thus, besides increasing the share of renewables and maintaining the nuclear share, E.ON identified the need to advance the technology of fossil fuel fired power plants. E.ON pursues a strategy of replacing power stations at the end of their life cycle with new, state-of-the-art power stations which are ready to be equipped with CCS (carbon capture and storage) and therefore “capture ready”. Moreover, E.ON is developing CO 2 capture and storage as this technology has the potential to drastically reduce emissions from coal-fired plants. Beginning in 2020, E.ON intends to have large scale CCS technology available. E.ON’s coordinated strategy encompasses research, development and demonstration (RD&D) and is directed towards pre combustion capture, oxyfuel and post combustion capture with a focus on the latter. E.ON is working together with international partners to further develop the existing technologies for capturing of CO 2 by testing advanced technologies in several pilot plants at our sites. The goal of the pilot projects is to optimise the downstream capture of CO 2 from flue gas (post combustion capture) hence reducing the auxiliary power consumption of the capture process. An update on the pilot projects, suppliers and achievement made will be given. Besides improving the capture process itself the technology needs a significant increase of the treatable flue gas capacity compared to today’s limits known from chemical industry. Therefore E.ON is also involved in the development of demo scale projects proving the feasibility of the full CCS chain (including transport and storage). E.g. our Kingsnorth power station in the UK has entered the next stage of the UK Government’s carbon capture and storage (CCS) competition after developers. We submitted an Outline Solution Bid competition on 9 November 2009. The competition is aiming to deliver the UK’s first fullscale CCS demonstration project. We have come to an agreement with both the European Commission and the Dutch Government on the funding of our ROAD-project. This is our joint project with Electrabel (part of GDF SUEZ) at RotterdamMaasvlakte (NL). The Dutch part of the funding is now before the European Commission for State Aid approval. We will report about the projects and the progress made in our market units. In addition E.ON is engaged in the development of storage sites and transport routes for CO 2 . Our business unit E.ON Gas Storage is involved in several research and development activities. The paper will highlight E.ON’s main CCS activities. An overview will be given as well as an update on the status of the current projects and available results.