Ruud Lubbers activates ECN test installation for CO2 capture

Petten – On Thursday December 13th Ruud Lubbers officially activated the SEWGS test installation of the Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN). Research performed with this installation should lead to the availability of CO2 capture technology for commercial applications in electricity plants in the near future. Lubbers noted that the installation is an important step towards efficient and safe CO2 capture and underground storage.

SEWGS test installation

Debate
Use and necessity of the CO2 capture and storage (CCS) technology was also a focus point in the debate that was held after the test installation was put into operation. During the debate the viewpoints of CCS advocates and opponents strongly collided at times. Led by Stan Dessens, Hans Altevogt (Greenpeace), Wim Willeboer (Essent), Marc Steens (Joint Research Centre JRC-IE) and Eric Lyssen (CATO/UCE) had a hearty discussion on the issue whether the Netherlands should take the development of the CCS technology into their own hands or if acquisition at any given moment is preferred.

Ton Hoff, managing director of ECN, closed the debate. “Promising transition technologies like CCS can help us gain time,” Hoff stated. “We stand for the difficult task to further develop sustainable technologies and move forward at the same time. Real commercial applications of CCS technology should therefore be available far before 2020 to convince countries like China and India – that still accommodate an increasing number of coal-fired power plants without CCS. I am convinced that this is possible. A major condition however is that government policy ensures that CCS becomes business for market parties, to encourage them to take action. At this time it is up to the politicians to show good leadership and make a move towards climate policy.”

Dr. Ruud Lubbers and ECN Managing Director
Ton Hoff (photo John Oud)

Energy vision
The long term vision of ECN can be found in the recently presented Energy Vision 2050, a directive future vision on a sustainable European energy system in 2050. ECN anticipates the application of a mix of (sustainable) technologies and clean fossil fuels, like the instigation of coal with CO2 capture and storage. This last technology will also have to make a large contribution to the achievement of the ambitious national goals for CO2 reduction in the medium term (-30% in 2020).

Research installation
The SEWGS test installation converts carbon monoxide and steam to hydrogen and CO2. The CO2 is captured and can subsequently be stored underground. The installation will initially be used for testing and upscaling of the SEWGS (Sorption-Enhanced Water Gas Shift) technology. In the near future it will also be possible to utilize the SEWGS unit to produce hydrogen from coal. This hydrogen can be used for electricity production. These technologies are also interesting for industrial processes that use hydrogen on a large scale, like the refinery of rough oil, the manufactory of chemicals and fuel cells for use in the transport world.

International consortium
The SEWGS project is part of the sustainability project CACHET, a collaboration project of research institutions, universities, energy companies, engineering agencies and manufacturers from the EU Member States, USA, Canada, China and Brazil. Oil company BP is in charge of the coordination. ECN, among other things, develops materials (sorbents) to separate CO2 from hydrogen. To test this process ECN builds experimental installations like the SEWGS.

More information and photos
The complete text (in Dutch) of the speech given by Ton Hoff can be downloaded. Copyright free photo material can be found at the bottom of this page.

For more information: Daan Jansen, project manager SEWGS, tel. 0224-56 45 71/06-515 73 347, e-mail jansen@ecn.nl or Frans Stravers, Manager Communication, tel. 0224-56 41 36/06-108 59 900, e-mail stravers@ecn.nl.