Erlangen, Germany – Siemens Energy was awarded a USD 8.9 million grant by the US department of Energy to build its first CO2 capture project for coal-fired power plants in the U.S.A. The primary goal of this project will be to reduce the large amounts of energy traditionally needed to operate carbon capture technologies. But more importantly, Siemens‘ POSTCAP technology will utilize an amino acid salt formulation as a solvent for CO2 absorption. The usage of this non-toxic, biodegradable solvent will result in a more environmentally friendly process.

Tampa Electric’s coal-fired power plant is located in southeastern Hillsborough County, Florida, and has an installed capacity of 1,892 megawatt (MWe). This new carbon capture demonstration is expected to treat a slipstream of the flue gas from Tampa Electric’s Big Bend Station and to capture 90 percent of its CO2. This demonstration will be installed downstream of an existing Siemens Wet FGD System (processing 890 MW of Flue Gas in a single absorber). The pilot plant is scheduled to be in operation in 2013.

The Obama Administration has made a goal of developing cost-effective deployment of CCS technologies within 10 years, with an objective of bringing five to ten commercial demonstration projects online by 2016. This pilot plant was one of 10 selected by the DOE aimed at developing advanced technologies for capturing carbon dioxide from coal combustion. It will focus on improving efficiency and reducing the added costs to electricity at power plants with carbon capture systems to less than 30 percent for a new pulverized coal plant and to 10 percent for a new advanced gasification plant as required by DOE.

In September 2009 Siemens put into operation its first pilot CO2 capture plant for coal-fired power plants at the Staudinger power plant in Germany. The technology for CO2 capture from the flue gas of power plants is an important feature of Siemens’ Environmental Portfolio. In 2009, the company’s products and solutions enabled customers to reduce their CO2 emissions by 210 million tons. This amount equals the combined annual CO2 emissions of New York, Tokyo, London and Berlin.