POWER December 2010 - 9

coke, or biomass, and very close to or better than those from
[natural gas combined-cycle technology]. "
The ELCOGAS pilot project highlights Spain's dogged efforts
to make headway in CCS technology. Also under way in
the country known more for its policies to spur growth of the
renewable power sector is an oxycombustion plant being developed
by a government institution, Fundación Ciudad de la
Energía (CIUDEN), and Spanish utility Endesa. The Integrated
Carbon Capture and Sequestration Technology Development
Plant under construction at Endesa's Compostilla power plant
in Ponferrada will use a 30-MWth Foster Wheeler-built circulating
fluidized bed unit to test that company's Flexi-Burn
carbon capture technology. The unit, which will test burn
a wide range of domestic (mostly anthracite) and imported
coals-as well as biomass-is expected to start operations
by the second half of 2011. Testing programs are expected
to follow thereafter.
The Compostilla project is one of six CCS projects granted
a total of €1 billion in economic recovery funding from the
European Union (EU) last year. In mid-October, the 27-nation
alliance's Zero Emissions Platform (ZEP) released an updated
Strategic Deployment Document urging member governments
to establish regulatory frameworks and provide funding as
soon as next year if CCS demonstration projects are to be
operational by 2015, as anticipated. The group said that getting
CCS beyond the demonstration stage was critical, citing
a recent European Commission analysis that suggested no
CCS projects would be built beyond the demonstration phase
if carbon prices were relatively low after the EU met renewable
energy and emission targets as planned in 2020.
ZEP noted, however, that significant CCS progress has
been made around the world since 2006: 18 pilot projects
have already started, and several large-scale (more than 100
MW) demonstration projects are in the pipeline. Citing the
Global CCS Institute, the group said that as of April 2010,
238 projects involving carbon capture, transport, and/or
storage were either active or planned worldwide. Of these, 80
sought to demonstrate the entire CCS chain and had goals to
capture more than 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide for
coal or 500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide for gas (nine
mainly storage-oriented projects are already operational, two
are under construction, and 69 are in the planning stages).
Of the 80 projects, moreover, 44 are in the power sector and
25 are in Europe, the group said.
As in the U.S., European CCS projects are prone to delays,
and many, confronted by financial challenges, have been
shelved. In late October, for example, Finnish partners Fortum
and Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) announced they would discontinue
plans to build a large-scale CCS demonstration project
at the companies' jointly owned Meri-Pori power plant. The
so-called " Finncap " project had been under consideration for
€500 million in funding from the EU's CCS demonstration program.
Fortum, a company that focuses primarily on nuclear
and hydropower, said that the decision was prompted mostly
by " technological and financial risks related to the project. "
Also in October, Norway's Ministry of Petroleum and Energy
delayed a final investment decision to execute a largescale
CCS project whose construction is under way at the
Mongstad refinery on the country's western coast, after
" theoretical studies " indicated health and environmental
risks related to amine capture technology. The studies
were among documents submitted in connection with an
application for an emission permit for the project by energy
December 2010 | POWER
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POWER December 2010

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