Thursday, April 9, 2009

Carbon capture facility to go live

Andrew Donoghue, BusinessGreen, Thursday 9 April 2009 at 16:22:00

A Total plant in France could mark the next step in CCS development

The first power station retro-fitted with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology is due to go live but environmental campaigners and experts claim the technology could be a dangerous distraction.

According to reports, a facility in France owned by power company Total has been equipped with CCS technology and is due to be activated this month.

Located in the Lacq region of south-west France, Total claims the project will essentially work by reversing the action of an existing natural gas plant. Rather than piping natural gas from a rock reservoir to the processing plant, concentrated C02 will instead be pumped the other way down the pipeline into the empty rock formation which used to house the natural gas.

"For CO2 transport, the pilot will take advantage of the existing pipeline used for the past 30 years to export natural gas extracted from the Rousse field to the treatment plant at Lacq. During the pilot, CO2 will simply be piped in the opposite direction," Total claimed in a report on the project. …

Carbon capture facility to go live

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