The Global Status of CCS: 2010, released on 9 March 2011, highlighted some significant steps forward in regard to large-scale deployment of CCS.

Pre-combustion and post-combustion capture systems dominated the large-scale integrated projects (LSIPs) last year, with 33 projects (43 per cent) and 21 projects (27 per cent) respectively.

Around 80 per cent of the projects based on post-combustion capture and 60 per cent of the pre-combustion capture projects are in the power generation industry. For the 33 pre-combustion capture LSIPs, the flexibility of the technology is shown through the spread of projects across power generation (19), synthetic natural gas (five), coal-to-liquids (three), fertiliser production (three), oil refining (two) and hydrogen production (one). The majority (over 70 per cent) of LSIPs based on pre-combustion capture are being developed for new build facilities. In contrast, for post-combustion capture projects, around 60 per cent are retrofitting post-combustion capture to existing facilities, enabling CO₂ emissions that are considered ‘locked in’ in operational facilities to be abated.

The other major capture technology includes the 12 LSIPs capturing CO₂ as part of gas processing, which is at the most mature stage of technology implementation since CO₂ separation from produced gas using amine-based absorbents is standard industry practice.

Two LSIPs have commenced construction since the previous Status Report: the Southern Company Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) project in the United States, and the Gorgon Carbon Dioxide Injection Project in Australia.

The announcement by Southern Company is particularly significant. The IGCC project, known as Plant Ratcliffe, will be the world’s first large-scale CCS project in the power sector.

The gasification technology at Plant Ratcliffe will be the Transport Integrated Gasification (TRIG™) technology developed by Southern Company, Kellogg Brown and Root, in conjunction with the US Department of Energy (DOE). It represents a scale up of the technology developed and operating at the Power Systems Development Facility near Wilsonville, Alabama. The technology is significantly different from conventional technology used to generate power from coal or lignite fuel, which involves burning pulverised fuel to produce steam, which is then used to drive a steam turbine to generate power.

Plant Ratcliffe will process the locally mined Mississippi lignite as the feedstock. The TRIG™ gasification technology, which converts the lignite into a synthesis gas (syngas) using a suitable oxygen source, is capable of being operated using oxygen from air (air-blown), or purified oxygen (oxygen-blown), but will be used in air-blown mode at the plant. The syngas will be chemically treated to allow CO₂ removal prior to fuelling a combined cycle gas turbine to produce power. Operation of the facility is expected in 2014.

The 582MW Plant Ratcliffe facility has been designed to produce 65 per cent less carbon dioxide emissions than current pulverised coal plants. It proposes to achieve this through a pre-combustion CO₂ capture process based on the UOP SELEXOL™ technology. The SELEXOL™ technology uses a physical solvent (which does not chemically react with CO₂) to scrub (or wash out) the CO₂ from the syngas produced by the TRIG™ gasification technology.

The project will capture CO₂ for sequestration in existing mature oil fields using enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques. The Plant Ratcliffe power plant is to be designed to meet or exceed all standards for sulphur, mercury and other regulated pollutants.

The project, once operational, is intended to demonstrate the commercial-scale generation of low carbon emissions power, thereby providing stakeholders with the opportunity to gain confidence in its deployment.