Testing officially began in Germany Thursday of a system to capture carbon dioxide at power stations, with the owner, Vattenfall Europe, saying it expected the technology to be practical by 2015. The company forecasts it will be the first in the world to generate power from lignite, or brown coal, with no carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Other companies are working on similar technology for hard coal. The test system at Jaenschwalde in eastern Germany uses oxyfuel combustion technology, burning lignite in oxygen instead of air. This produces only carbon dioxide and water vapour, which are easily separated and liquefied, according to dpa. The CO2 can then be dumped, for example pumped into deep rock. CO2 is the main culprit for global warming. Chief executive Klaus Rauscher said the technology would next be used at a pilot plant, a bigger, 60-million-euro (80-million-dollar) system to be commissioned in May next year at Schwarze Pumpe, near the Polish border. He said the Swedish-owned company would ultimately convert all its power stations to oxyfuel technology. "We aim to turn lignite into power in a climate-friendly way," he said in Jaenschwalde. Scientists from the German University of Cottbus are jointly working on the tests with Vattenfall engineers. After the test and the pilot systems, Vattenfall would commission a 300-megawatt demonstration system between 2012 and 2015, Rauscher said, with the first economic CO2-free lignite plant likely to go into operation by 2020. -- SPA
