REDUCE CO2
DE US
REDUCE CO2
DE US

The world's first ISO-certified CO₂ recovery plant equipped with ASCO technology

ASCO Carbon Dioxide, Inc. and HTC Extraction Systems have supplied a carbon dioxide (CO2) recovery system to InnoTech Alberta Inc. The plant recovers CO2 from the flue gas of a natural gas-fired power station. The ‘SGR285’ is the world’s first ISO 14034 ETV-compliant CO2 recovery plant and recovers 6 tonnes of CO2 per day.

Ansicht einer CO₂-Rückgewinnungsanlage aus Rauchgas zwischen zwei Zwischentanks mit verbundenen Rohrleitungen und Prozessmodulen

350Solutions, a consultancy firm that independently assesses new environmental and cleantech innovations, has verified the plant against six assessment criteria, including plant size, CO₂ capture efficiency, CO₂ production rate, CO₂ composition, and energy and water consumption. Data was collected for all results over a total of 85 days between 12 September 2020 and 5 December 2020. The recovery plant was verified with a nominal CO2 production of 6 tonnes per day and a capture efficiency of 82%. Verification of the capture system was required as part of the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE competition. The competition aims to combat climate change and is funded by Elon Musk and the Musk Foundation.

The ASCO-HTC technology supplied to InnoTech uses amine scrubbing as a solvent and optimised compression technology to enable a highly efficient CO2 extraction process that is also resistant to oxygen in the outlet stream. A flue gas stream from the natural gas-fired boilers of the ‘Enmax Shepard Energy Centre’, an 860 MW combined cycle power plant, is fed into the capture system. This flue gas is first cooled before entering the CO2 extraction process. The flue gas then enters the CO2 gas absorber, through which the amine-based solvent is passed. After absorption, the CO2 gas is carried along in the enriched solvent stream for CO2 recovery, whilst the remaining combustion products in the flue gas are discharged from the top of the absorber tower. The CO2-enriched solvent enters the stripper tower to release the CO2 gas from the enriched solvent stream. The CO2 gas exiting the stripper is recovered at a controlled temperature and pressure and supplied as a final product stream consisting of saturated CO2, with a maximum rated capacity of 6 tonnes per day.

Marco Pellegrino, CEO/Managing Director of ASCO CARBON DIOXIDE LTD, is delighted: “ASCO is particularly proud of this joint project with HTC and InnoTech. As a pioneer with 85 years’ experience in CO2 process engineering, it is overwhelming to now also be recognised as the first ISO-certified CO2 recovery project. We hope that this will raise awareness of the possibilities of CO2 recovery and, consequently, of environmental protection."