20 November 2008 - Siemens Energy has, under contract to Vattenfall, supplied an SPPA-T3000 instrumentation & control (I&C) system for the Schwarze Pumpe pilot carbon capture and storage (CCS) plant.
The coal fired plant for low-CO2-power generation near Spremberg, Brandenburg, with an installed thermal capacity of 30 MW, is operated using the oxyfuel process.
Siemens I&C has already been deployed at the Schwarze Pumpe lignite-fired power plant and demonstrated its capabilities there. For the pilot plant in the immediate vicinity Siemens has supplied the new web-based I&C system SPPA-T3000, and connections to the air separation unit, the CO2 liquefaction facility and the main power plant as well as the field instrumentation.
Siemens is also providing support for the entire trial operation.
The decisive factors in favour of the Siemens solution are the straightforward engineering, user-friendliness and high system flexibility. Since I&C modifications during plant operation often have to be implemented on line within the space of seconds, a high level of flexibility is an important criterion for the I&C installed in such a pilot plant.
At present, there are primarily three technologies offered for CCS: pre-combustion carbon capture in an IGCC power plant. post-combustion carbon capture and the oxyfuel process, in which the coal is combusted with pure oxygen and recirculating flue gas.