E.ON and Siemens are putting a pilot CO2 capture plant into operation at the E.ON power plant Staudinger near Hanau, Germany. The two companies are pushing further ahead with the development of a process geared toward climate-friendly coal-based power generation. A lab-proven process is to be employed under real operating conditions at the power plant’s hard-coal-fired Staudinger Unit 5. The pilot plant will be operated with part of the flue gas from Unit 5. E.ON and Siemens intend to run the pilot plant until the end of 2010. The results achieved and the operating performance of the pilot plant will serve as the basis for large-scale demonstration plants, which are scheduled to start operation in the middle of the next decade. The project is being sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Economics under the terms of the COORETEC Initiative. It is part of the federal government’s 5th Energy Research Program “Innovation and New Energy Technologies” and promotes research and development in the field of low-CO2 power plant technologies.
