Brown Coal Innovation Australia (BCIA), a not-for-profit, member-based company which invests in the skills development of the future workforce and the technologies required to achieve a sustainable, low-emissions future for brown coal, has announced funding for a research and development project which will target significantly reduced carbon emissions from brown coal power generation in Victoria and throughout the world.
According to the media release by BCIA, the project also aims to slash the capital and operational costs for large-scale carbon capture plants; arguably the greatest challenge facing global deployment of carbon capture for fossil fuel power generation.
BCIA has received multi-million dollar funding from the Victorian Government and the Australian Government via a relationship agreement with the Australia National Low Emissions Coal R&D (ANLEC R&D). The ANLEC R&D relationship agreement provides for BCIA to manage ANLEC R&D’s brown coal energy research portfolio.
The company’s announced that a $650,000 funding was awarded towards a research project which will combine CSIRO’s CO2 capture innovation with that of major Japanese technology vendor IHI Corporation.
The research project is targeting a 40% reduction in the energy usage of current plant post combustion capture (PCC) processes for Victorian brown coal-fired power plants and will see the installation of a $1 million Japanese-built PCC pilot plant at AGL Loy Yang Power station, the first in Victoria to operate around the clock. The expected reduction in energy usage – as targeted by this project – would lead to significant savings in the cost of energy supplied to the consumers compared to implementing carbon capture using first-generation PCC plant.
“This project entails a two-year evaluation of two advanced liquid absorbents, two advanced process designs and an advanced gas/liquid contactor. The combination of these three aspects represents a significant step forward in PCC technology application for Victorian brown coal-fired power stations. Additionally, this research project is unique because it denotes a major collaboration between internationally renowned technology provider, IHI Corporation, and Australia’s national research institute, CSIRO. The collaboration is a world-first evaluation of a technology provider-developed PCC process in flue gases from Victorian lignite-fired power,” BCIA Chief Executive, Dr Phil Gurney, said.
CSIRO Executive Director of Energy and Resources, Dr Alex Wonhas, said the project was part of CSIRO’s commitment to developing low emission technologies.
“We expect coal will continue to contribute to Australia’s and the global energy mix in the coming decades. It is therefore important that we work with industry to minimise its environmental impacts. CSIRO has a critical role to play in this space,” he said.
BCIA has awarded a total of $3.65 million in funding for nine world class research and development projects as part of the company’s current competitive funding round for low emissions brown coal power generation technologies.
, a not-for-profit, member-based company which invest in the skills development of the future workforce and the technologies required to achieve a sustainable, low-emissions future for brown coal, has announced funding for research and development project which will target significantly reduced carbon emissions from brown coal power generation in Victoria and throughout the world.){kind=link}