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18 October 2006 -- Enel, Itea, a subsidiary of Sofinter Group, and Enea signed a collaboration agreement in Rome to develop an advanced combustion technology for coal-fired power plants that will reduce emissions to near zero.
The new process is patented by Itea and has undergone 4,000 hours of testing at a 5 MW pilot plant at Gioia del Colle near Bari. Enel said the process can handle solid fuels, reducing the creation of pollutants to a minimum while providing high energy efficiency. This process, which leverages the knowledge developed under a Itea-Enea research project co-financed by the Ministry for Universities on energy recovery from residual materials, produces a combustion gas can composed essentially of CO2, which facilitates the removal and subsequent sequestration of this greenhouse gas.
The agreement provides for an initial stage devoted to experimentation and modelling to determine the scope for scaling up the process. A commercial plant of between 35 and 70 MWe to be located at an Enel coal-fired power plant will be designed. This phase will last one year.
If the emissions abatement data and the findings of the technical and financial studies are as expected, the second phase will involve the construction of the commercial plant, which will be the first Italian power plant with "near-zero" emissions. It will take about three years to build and start operations at the plant.
Itea will contribute its pilot plant research, Enel its combustion experience and Enea its skills as a technology advisor, as well as maintaining links with the Ministry for Economic Development's Electric System Programme in clean coal sector. Enel will also shoulder two thirds of the development costs in the first phase of the project, with the remaining third being met by Itea.
Technology Quick Facts
Isotherm is a pressurized oxy-combustion technology, i.e., it uses air enriched with oxygen at higher-than-atmospheric pressures. It was conceived to achieve three objectives at the same time:
- generate power using abundant, lower quality fuels;
- combust fuels with near-zero emissions;
- help reduce the greenhouse effect caused by carbon dioxide
To achieve these objectives, Isotherm uses a combination of the fundamental properties of combustion to combust without flame at a high, uniform temperature with all types of fuel.
The researchers of this combustion technology believe it has a range of advantages:
- the high temperature of combustion fuses the ash in the fuels, which is collected in the form of completely inert vitrified waste;
- the control of combustion conditions increases the full oxidation of the fuels;
- the final effluent gas produced by the plant is essentially concentrated CO2, which can be sequestered;
- in the case of coal, Isotherm combustion has the additional advantage of not requiring pulverized coal; it can use granular coal suspended in water, minimizing logistical problems
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