Swedish media recently reported that the Swedish energy group Vattenfall has launched a major pilot project using algae to absorb greenhouse gas emissions from a coal-fired power plant in eastern Germany.
The €2 million trial run, which will continue until October 2011 in the Lausitz mining region, is one of several experimental attempts in the sector using algae to slash carbon dioxide output.
"The microalgae use climate-killing CO2 to create valuable biomass," the chairman of Vattenfall Europe Mining and Generation, Hartmuth Zeiss, said in a
statement. "Moreover, the new technology will bring useful know-how to the Lausitz region and increase its importance as a region for energy production."
Half the funding for the project called green MiSSiON (Microalgae Supported
CO2 Sequestration in Organic Chemicals and New Energy) comes from Vattenfall, the other half from state and European Union subsidies.
The gas emitted at the Senftenberg brown-coal-fired plant is being pumped
through a kind of broth using algae cultivated in 12 plastic tanks. The aim is to find out what kinds of algae work with brown coal dust and then, how economical this kind of CO2 reduction is.
Algae can scrub 10 times as much CO2 as land-based plants and the biomass produced in the process can be used to produce biodiesel, to feed biogas power plants and as a nutritious supplement in fish food.
Initial results of the project will be published in late 2011.
A project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2008 found that diverting CO2 through an algae broth could reduce emissions by as much as 85 percent.
Vattenfall is the third biggest electricity provider in Germany. Last month, European aerospace giant EADS unveiled what it called the world's first "hybrid" aircraft to run on algae fuel.
Here in Ireland our largest coal fired power station is situated close to the Shannon estuary with a plentiful supply of seawater nearby. Efforts to find a nearby reservoir for carbon capture and storage have failed and so, if the experiment in East Germany proves successful, then it may be possible to replicate the process here at home.
Comments