Siemens Energy is working to adapt its carbon capture process for use in Norwegian utility company Statkraft’s combined cycle power plants.

Launched in January, the project is expected to be completed within two years. After that, the process will be ready for industrial-scale use, according to Siemens.

“Technical innovations are the most important lever for combating climate change effectively,” said Michael Suess, CEO of the Fossil Power Generation Division of Siemens Energy. “Cooperation with Statkraft will allow us to now further develop this future-oriented technology to also permit its use in gas-fired combined cycle power plants.”

While combined cycle power plants produce fewer carbon dioxide emissions than coal-fired plants, their flue gas also has high oxygen content that interferes with solvent effectiveness.

“The agreement also includes investigations into the behaviour of our solvent under these special flue-gas conditions,” said Tobias Jockenhoevel, head of Post-Combustion Technology in Siemen’s Fossil Power Generation Division. “We will also be matching the CO2 capture process to the dynamic load profile of combined cycle power plants, which is characterized by frequent load cycling. We will optimise the entire process to enable easy backfitting of a CO2 capture system in future combined cycle power plants.”

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