Power plants in Europe could be burning coal with practically zero emissions at a competitive price by 2015 or 2020, a senior engineering executive at Spain's biggest power company Endesa said on Friday. As one of the biggest coal users in Europe, Endesa is among the companies pushing forward carbon capture technology, Santiago Sabugal told Reuters in an interview.

Endesa, which generated 40 percent of its Spanish power from coal last year, is involved in a number of European projects examining different capture techniques and underground storage sites, said Sabugal, deputy director of Endesa's generation arm. Endesa is the subject of a takeover bid by Germany's E.ON, also a big coal user.

Carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas causing global warming, is produced by all fossil fuels. Coal produces the most in relation to energy produced, but it is also the cheapest fuel and one that is easily available in many countries.

CO2 can be stripped out after coal is burned by separating the exhaust gases. If the coal is first turned into gas, the CO2 can be removed before it is burnt. Another technique is to burn the coal in oxygen, which produces exhaust gas with a high concentration of CO2 and makes it easier to separate.

"Which of these techniques will win in the end is the million-dollar question. As there is no major plant using any of them now, we don't know the cost, the availability or other things. "We are looking at them all to see which will best suit our plants and their individual situation ... It could be that we use different techniques."

Spain's power industry is having to bear the brunt of the country's CO2 emissions cuts, as the government struggles to balance runaway growth from the transport and service sector.

Sabugal believes carbon capture will be available in 2015-20 at a cost of around 20 euros ($26) a tonne. "We estimate the extra cost of building a new plant with carbon capture technology at 40 percent, and the increase in the cost of the electricity produced at 25 to 30 percent," he said. "That's not a dramatic increase because it will be offset by gains in efficiency. People will consume less."

FORESTRY WASTE AND OLIVE BRANCHES GO INTO THE FURNACE
In parallel to its carbon capture research, Endesa is working on using biomass alongside coal in all its coal plants. Sabugal says it could be using 10 to 15 percent biomass mixes by 2011. It would burn forestry waste, agricultural waste like corn stubble or olive and vine cuttings, which Sabugal says are available in sufficient quantities within 150 km (95 miles) of each of Endesa's Spanish coal plants.

Sabugal, who leaves his company car at home and takes the metro to work, is not sure that mankind will succeed in halting climate change before it reaches disastrous levels. "I have to be optimistic," he said. "The most important thing for me is that Endesa's top management is very aware that we have to advance in carbon capture and storage techniques. "Two years ago that was not the case, in Endesa or anywhere."
By Julia Hayley
(Planet Ark, 04/12/2006)
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39309/story.htm