This article is 13 years old. Images might not display.
The UNO MK3 carbon capture mini-plant is part of significant industrial trials for a new carbon dioxide capture process with the potential to substantially reduce the costs of carbon capture and storage.
Professor Dianne Wiley is the capture program manager of the Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies.
“The UNO mini-plant uses a solvent similar to baking soda to separate carbon dioxide from a gas stream, such as the flue gas from a power station,” she said.
“It is much more environmentally friendly than current technology.”
The UNO is designed to be highly flexible so various aspects of the new process can be studied, optimised and applied to a larger pilot plant
Results of the UNO trials will be applied to industrial pilot trials at the Hazelwood brown coal power station in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley.
“The major advantage of UNO is the potential reduction of capture costs by 15 to 20%,” Wiley said.
“At power station scale, this could save literally millions of dollars a year and make [carbon capture and storage] a far more commercial proposition.”
The research cooperative said by-products of the process could potentially be used in fertiliser manufacture.
