With this plant, the Energy City Foundation (CIUDEN) becomes a key international player in CO2 capture and storage technologies.
CIUDEN is building in El Bierzo one of the most important Experimental Platforms for CO2 capture in the world. Once completed, it will have a surface area of 90,000 square meters and generate 50 megawatts, making it the biggest European plant in terms of size and power output.
The Plant for Technological Development is located in the town of Cubillos del Sil (León) in El Bierzo, a region whose history is closely related with energy production, and in particular with mining and coal usage.
The Cubillos Plant will start operations in June, 2011, after an investment of approximately €100 million, making it the biggest experimental plant in the world for CO2 capture using the oxycombustion process. This method uses oxygen instead of air for combustion, resulting in the flue gases being composed almost entirely of CO2 (and water), which can be separated relatively easily.
Thanks to this plant advanced R&D activities can be carried out in a series of relevant fields, highlighted by the testing of individual stages and the design, dynamic simulation, evaluation, optimization and making of performance predictions for combustors. Different combinations of technologies to eliminate contaminants in the CO2 current will also be tested, such as start up and stoppage procedures and load changes, with special attention to safety aspects related to oxygen.
The “Energy City Foundation” was created as a state-run, public foundation by the Spanish Government in 2006, toward promoting the economic and social development of the Bierzo region by carrying out activities related with energy and the environment.