Foster Wheeler AG has signed, together with ENDESA and the Spanish Foundation, Fundación Ciudad de la Energía (CIUDEN), a grant agreement with the European Commission (EC). The grant agreement stipulates the terms of 180 MEUR of EU funding under the EC's European Energy Program for Recovery (EERP) to support the carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology development applicable to a 300 MWe oxy-combustion power plant in Spain.

This is one of six European CCS projects selected for funding under the EERP and is unique in that it is the only such project utilizing circulating fluidized-bed (CFB) technology. The goal of the project is to demonstrate all aspects of a commercial scale supercritical oxy-combustion CFB power plant with CO2 capture, transport and storage in an underground saline aquifer for a wide range of domestic and imported coals, petroleum cokes and biomass.

ENDESA's Compostilla plant site has been identified as the location for this full-scale demonstration plant, based on preliminary positive geological surveys of nearby saline aquifers for storing the plant's CO2, and the ability to utilize the infrastructure at the existing coal-powered plant.

Foster Wheeler's Finnish and Spanish subsidiaries within its Global Power Group have teamed with ENDESA Generación, the largest Spanish utility, and CIUDEN to support the first phase of this Spanish CCS project, including the validation of the plant's design with a 30 MWth Foster Wheeler CFB steam generator incorporated in CIUDEN's integrated CCS Technology Development Plant (TDP) currently under construction in Spain.

At the heart of the coal-fired CCS plant will be Foster Wheeler's advanced Flexi-BurnTM CFB technology, capable of operating either in a conventional or a carbon capture mode. In a conventional mode, the unit is air-fired. However, when operating in the carbon capture mode, the CFB combustion process is supported by a mixture of oxygen and recycled flue gas. This results in producing a CO2-rich flue gas containing over 91% CO2 (in the dry flue gas), which dramatically reduces the need for expensive and energy intensive CO2 separation equipment. This technology has the potential to significantly lower the cost of carbon capture as compared with other CCS technologies.

"Foster Wheeler's Flexi-Burn CCS technology is designed to easily transition between conventional and CCS modes while utilizing the CFB combustion platform to provide wide fuel flexibility, including carbon-neutral fuels like biomass. We believe this operational flexibility reduces its commercial and technological risk and will allow faster wide-scale adoption of CCS technology and its associated environmental benefits," said Tomas Harju-Jeanty, president and chief executive officer of Foster Wheeler Energia Oy.

"This is an important milestone in the commercial development of CCS technology and is the next step in the collaborative research and development and feasibility work undertaken by ENDESA, CIUDEN and Foster Wheeler. We are fortunate to have such strong team members and offer our full support behind this important project," said Eric Svendsen, president and chief executive officer of Foster Wheeler Energia S.L.U.

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