RWE Symposium shows climate protection possible through intelligent use of carbon dioxide

100 experts discuss the merits of CO2 as a raw material. RWE Group research projects to reduce emissions. End Quote

(1888PressRelease) September 22, 2010 - How can CO2 become one of the raw materials of the future? The CO2 Symposium run by RWE in Duesseldorf on Tuesday was devoted to this topic. The international conference brought together over one hundred delegates from political, industrial and academic spheres to investigate the potential uses of carbon dioxide. According to many experts across the world, the separation and utilisation of CO2 from industrial plants and power stations (Carbon Capture and Usage or CCU) could contribute to global climate protection.

Thomas Rachel, Parliamentary State Secretary of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, explained: “we need a broad spectrum of innovative solutions in order to exploit the full CO2 reduction potential. And this includes new strategies to make use of CO2 as a chemical substance. Our Ministry has set up a research programme for this purpose, in which we will cooperate with partners such as scientists and industry representatives to find solutions.”

Dr. Leonhard Birnbaum, Chief Strategy Officer of RWE AG, highlighted the fact that “three levers are essential to significant CO2 reduction. We need enhanced efficiency, more electricity usage through electrification of other consumer sectors and a low-carbon electricity mix.” Electrification of cars and the use of heat pumps are good examples of how greater use of electricity can lead to energy savings, continued Birnbaum. “Electricity is increasingly becoming the real backbone of our energy supply structure – so modernisation, realignment and innovation on the generation side are a key task for us.” He also made the point that any such modernisation would have to be economically sustainable.

Dr. Johannes Lambertz, CEO of RWE Power, welcomed the German government’s willingness to support CCU research, though he pointed out that companies who had already made a major contribution should be given particular consideration. “We need innovation-friendly and clear-cut regulations to ensure that utilisation of CO2 exempts us from the obligation to purchase CO2 allowances under the emissions trading system. In addition, regulatory provisions need to cover cases where CO2 is converted by joint venture partners, as is common practice in our projects. He cited specific projects where RWE is showing the energy to lead in the field of carbon conversion and utilisation.
The international conference brought together over one hundred delegates from political, industrial and academic spheres.
The international conference brought together over one hundred delegates from political, industrial and academic spheres.

At the Coal Innovation Centre in the Rhineland lignite region, for instance, RWE is working with various partners on new ways of using CO2 from the Niederaussem power station as a raw material. One example would be the CO2RRECT project (CO2-Reaction using Regenerative Energies and Catalytic Technologies). This joint venture of RWE, Bayer Technology Services, Bayer MaterialScience, Siemens and some German universities aims to leverage renewables to convert carbon dioxide as a raw material into a carbon base for chemical intermediary products like carbon monoxide or formic acid. Such substances are crucial to the production of plastics. The CO2RRECT initiative is backed by funding of eleven million euros for three years from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Another example would be the technique of CO2 flue-gas scrubbing, designed to capture carbon dioxide from the exhaust gas of power stations. Since 2009, RWE, BASF and Linde have been running a pilot plant at the Niederaussem power station – with some encouraging results. The amount of energy required to run this innovative separation technique is 20 percent less than that used by existing methods. As Lambertz pointed out: “Carbon capture technology – for the purpose of both long-term storage and utilisation of CO2 – is one of the keys to environmentally friendly coal-fired electricity generation, which will be a firm feature of our future energy mix.”

Notes on the press release

RWE’s CO2 research at a glance
In a host of different projects, the RWE Group is currently investigating potential uses for CO2. All RWE research and development projects focusing on climate-friendly coal-fired electricity generation are pooled within the Coal Innovation Centre in Niederaussem:

* Fluidised-bed drying with internal waste-heat utilisation (WTA) – a technique developed by RWE experts – reduces the CO2 emissions of lignite-fired electricity generation by about ten percent.
* In addition, a new flue-gas desulphurising technique to enable extremely efficient reduction of emissions from dust and sulphur is being tested under trial conditions (REAplus).
* CO2 flue-gas scrubbing, a key element of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and CCU technology is also being tested in a pilot plant. In a further pilot plant, algae are converting CO2 into biomass, which can be used for co-firing in biogas or fossil-fuel-driven power stations.
* In a research project being carried out in conjunction with Brain AG, micro organisms are being cultivated for the purpose of converting CO2 from the flue gas of a lignite-fired power station.
* Together with Bayer, Siemens, the RWTH Aachen University and other universities, research is being conducted into ways of directly converting the CO2 within chemical processes.

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