The Spanish Climate Change and Clean Energy Strategy Horizon 2007-2012-2020 includes CO₂ Capture and Geological Storage (CCS) as an option to combat climate change and considers this emergent technology to be a valid alternative for mitigation. Spain is developing the necessary research, development and innovation (RD&I) both for the capture as well as for CO₂ storage, in collaboration with national Research Centres and companies of the energy sector.

In 2006 CIUDEN was created by the Spanish administration and was founded with the involvement of three ministries: environment, industry and economics. CIUDEN is a research and development foundation and its objectives are the development and demonstration of efficient, cost effective and reliable CO₂ capture and storage.

Pilot plant next year

CIUDEN’s test facility for CO₂ capture is under construction and it will be operational in the first quarter of 2010, during the Spanish presidency of the European Union. The investment on the plant is of 84 million Euros, an amount that indicates the project magnitude and relevance. The test facility includes both oxyfuel-pulverised coal and circulating fluidised bed combustors. Following this, the aim is to develop a demonstration plant by 2015. In this sense, negotiations are underway between the Spanish government and ENDESA to submit a proposal to the European Union as part of the European Energy Programme for Recovery (EEPR), until mid July. Spain is among seven Member States with CCS projects listed in the EEPR regulation. The project in León is earmarked 180 million Euros. The demonstration plant is expected to cost 500 million Euros, which is under analysis at the moment. The funding gap is the main issue in this sense and ENDESA is still uncertain about it. The company is analyzing along with the Ministry of Industry the existing financing through the European Commission and the Ministry itself. The final decision will depend, ENDESA says, upon the funds the Spanish Administration will offer.

Broad public involvement

Along with the efforts of the Spanish Government and ENDESA, there are other platforms and companies in the Spanish energy sector that are fully involved in CCS. The Spanish Technological Platform of CO₂ (PTECO₂) was formed in 2006 by 34 private entities from the industrial and technological sector that are part of the EU Emission Trading Scheme and by 36 public entities from the education and research sphere.  The Spanish Association of CO₂ (AECO₂) is a non-profit entity formed in 2007 and they do complementary and support work for PTECO₂. The project CENIT CO₂ (led by the electricity companies ENDESA and UNION FENOSA) has as its main objective the research, development and validation of new knowledge and integrated solutions that would allow the CO₂ emission reductions generated in the production of electricity from fossil fuels.

Another key public entities is the Spanish Mining and Geological Institute (IGME), is a public research organism that belongs to the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. Its goal is to provide support to other administration bodies and to the society in general about all activities related to Earth Sciences.

CIEMAT is an organism of the Ministry of Education and Science, a Public Research Agency for excellence in energy and environment, as well as in many vanguard technologies and in various areas of fundamental research; the National Institute for Coal (INCAR), a coal-related research institute part of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC). All of them comprise the Spanish expertise partners for projects of CO₂ capture and geological storage, along with other smaller private companies in the energy sector, universities and consultants.

Other Spanish CCS projects

Special mention should be made of the other big Spanish utility IBERDROLA, which owns the British utility Scottish Power and recently have started a seven-month trial of a 1MW carbon capture unit at Longannet power station in Fife, Scotland. The prototype - designed to capture CO₂ in flue gases - has been retrofitted into the 40 year old power station. IBERDROLA is also involved in the CIUDEN project but in a lesser amount.

It is also worth mentioning the 335 MWe Integrated Gasification in Combined Cycle (IGCC) power plant of ELCOGAS in Puertollano (Ciudad Real), the world’s largest IGCC power plant. IGCC is a technology that turns coal into gas - synthetic gas (syngas). It then removes impurities from the coal gas before it is combusted. This results in lower emissions of sulphur dioxide, particulates and mercury. It also results in improved efficiency compared to conventional pulverized coal. ELCOGAS is a Spanish joint stock company whose shareholders are utilities and capital good suppliers from around Europe. Elcogas is building a pilot plant retrofitted with CCS technology developed by Siemens. The pilot plant will use a fraction of the produced syngas to separate it into CO₂ that will be captured and stored while the remaining hydrogen will fuel the plant. 

Things are heading towards the right direction with the efforts made by both private and public sectors in developing CCS technology. If the Spanish government pledges to financially support ENDESA’s proposal for the EEPR, the future will look bright for CO₂ capture and geological storage in Spain. One thing will be crucial from that point onwards, social awareness and public communication of CCS. Every single effort will be invalid if the public opinion is not brought into the debate and feels comfortable with this technology.

This article was contributed by Oier Aristizabal. He is a CCS consultant for Bellona.