20/09/07 – HAZELWOOD LOW EMISSION COAL PROJECT UNDERWAY

One of Australia’s most promising low emission coal-fired electricity generation projects has moved a step closer following successful testing of Hazelwood power station’s brown coal at a coal drying plant in Germany.

Results from the 1500 tonne coal drying trial are encouraging and represent a significant milestone for International Power Australia’s $370 million low emission technology Hazelwood 2030 Project to be developed at the 1600 megawatt power station in the Latrobe Valley.

The coal drying demonstration phase of the project involves boiler and turbine efficiency upgrades to one of Hazelwood’s 200 megawatt generating units to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 20 per cent.  This will result in carbon dioxide savings of approximately 500,000 tonnes a year when the project is operational by early 2010.

Hazelwood 2030 was awarded $50 million under the Federal Government’s Low Emissions Technology Development Fund (LETDF) late last year and at the same time was awarded $30 million by the Victorian Government. Related documentation with both Governments have now been signed.

The development of the coal drying plant draws on the expertise of internationally recognised leader in low emission coal technology and plant integration, Alstom, and a complex fluidised bed coal drying technology being developed by RWE of Germany.
 
Contracts also have been finalised with Alstom for the supply of all equipment and technology and the project will now move into the detailed design phase.  On-site construction is expected to begin during 2008.

Testing of Latrobe Valley brown coal at RWE’s Frechen prototype coal drying plant in Germany has produced encouraging results.  Although brown coal has a low ash content, as well as low sulphur and nitrous oxide emissions, it has a relatively high water content which produces a high carbon dioxide emission intensity compared with black coal.  Removing moisture efficiently from the brown coal is therefore critical to achieving a significant reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.

The coal drying demonstration project at Hazelwood is designed to reduce the brown coal moisture content from 60 per cent to approximately 12 per cent, therefore requiring less coal to produce a given amount of electricity. 

The Hazelwood 2030 project also involves the construction of a pilot carbon capture plant scheduled for completion late in 2008.  Designed to capture 16 to 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide per day from one of the power station’s generating units, the pilot plant will be one of the world’s biggest.

This carbon capture plant is being designed and built by Process Group and technology support will be provided by the Co-operative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies.

The carbon capture technology enables carbon dioxide to be absorbed from the flue gas by a solvent solution. The captured carbon dioxide will be utilised for other processes in the power station.