Schlussbericht
(Englisch)
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In the framework of the new Swiss energy strategy 2050 there is a need to develop new ways of producing electricity that are not based on nuclear power plants and that do not emit CO2. This points clearly to the necessity of using new renewables, namely solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal energy, but also to the need of considering using natural gas fired power plants with the possibility of capturing and storing the produced CO2, i.e. implementing Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technologies.
The project CARMA (2009-12) has clearly showed that natural gas based power generation is possible using technologies that guarantee high efficiency and clean production. Such power plants can be built already today in a “capture-ready” configuration, i.e. in such a way that their extension to incorporate the CO2 capture equipment is from a technical point of view straightforward. There are different capture technologies that are already commercial (the different amine scrubbing processes) or pre-commercial (the chilled ammonia process, developed by Alstom Power).
The big uncertainty about the commercial deployment of CCS in Switzerland regards the possibility of storing CO2 in the Swiss subsurface. From a technical point of view, a thorough and comprehensive study carried out by Diamond, Leu, and Chevalier (BFE report 290289 of August 31st, 2010) considered the available geological information about the Swiss subsurface. By carrying out both a basin-wide and an aquifer-wide analysis, and by accounting for the many uncertainties, they concluded that there is a large potential for CO2 geological storage in the Swiss Molasse Basin, namely of the order of 2 to 3 thousand million tons of CO2. Considering that a 400 MW gas-fired power plant at full load produces about 1 million t CO2 per year, such a capacity would be sufficient in principle to store the CO2 produced by ten such power plants in the course of two to three hundred years.
It is however clear that this is not enough to evaluate whether there is a site suitable for commercial scale storage of CO2, namely a geological structure that can store safely and permanently the amount of CO2 emitted by one gas-fired power plant during its life time, i.e. 20-30 Mt CO2. More geological data are necessary, and the political, economical, legal and acceptance issues related to CCS in Switzerland have to be investigated. The results of the project CARMA as well as international experience indicate that in order to mature the CCS technology in Switzerland and to make it a viable commercial solution, it is necessary first to carry out a small scale pilot project, which includes a field test of geological storage.
CCS technologies are important components of Cleantech technologies, and there is consensus on the need to strengthen Swiss research and industrial leadership in this area. Considering the role played by a number of Swiss companies (ABB, Alstom Power, Sulzer Chemtech) and by the Swiss CCS research community in the CCS domain, it is obvious that a CCS RD&D program (Research, Development and Demonstration) would be extremely valuable in this context.
These considerations have persuaded a group of scientists and engineers, working in academia, industry and government to launch an initiative to promote a CCS pilot project, in parallel to a Swiss CCS Research Program. The CCS pilot project envisioned for Switzerland will consist of two pilot sites, each dedicated to a portion of the CCS value chain, namely power generation and capture (post-combustion capture, i.e. the same technology that is of interest when industrial plants other than power plants aim at capturing CO2 before emission) in one site and CO2 transportation, injection and underground storage in the second site.
Auftragnehmer/Contractant/Contraente/Contractor:
ETH-Zürich
Autorschaft/Auteurs/Autori/Authors:
Mazzotti,Marco
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