RWE appoints Technip and GE Gas Power to study combining CCGT with CCS

GERMAN multinational energy company RWE has selected Technip Energies and its partner GE Gas Power to undertake a pre-FEED study for a new, natural gas-fired combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plant with a fully integrated carbon capture (CCS) facility at a site near Stallingborough, UK. 

The proposed development — close to the Humber Estuary — would be up to 800 MW, enough to power 1m homes, RWE said, and would be a capture partner of Viking CCS, a CCS project in the Viking area of the southern North Sea. 

The pre-FEED study will look at the challenges, benefits, economics, and optimal technical solutions of integrating a cutting-edge power station design with a carbon capture facility – a combination designed to maintain security of supply whilst supporting the energy industry’s transition to net zero Technip said. 

A CCGT power plant is essentially an electrical power plant in which a gas turbine and a steam turbine are used in combination to achieve greater efficiency than would be possible independently. The gas turbine drives an electrical generator while the exhaust heat generates steam with a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG). The produced steam is then fed to a steam turbine to provide additional power. 

GE Gas Power will provide expertise in natural gas combined cycle plant engineering, operability, and plant integration, while engineering and technology experts at Technip Energies will focus on the CCS facility using Shell’s Cansolv carbon capture technology. 

Christophe Malaurie, senior vice president of decarbonization solutions at Technip Energies, said: “We are pleased to be entrusted by RWE for this project — a large green field development for a power plant with carbon capture and a partner to the Viking CCS network.” 

Carbon capture progress

The Stallingborough plant is one of three new carbon capture projects recently announced by RWE. Along with its new CCGT plant, RWE is also looking into the feasibility of retrofitting carbon capture technology at its existing CCGT power stations in Pembroke and Staythorpe – a facility close to Stallingborough, and the second largest CCGT power station in the UK. 

RWE, which produces energy for around 10m UK homes, says that as well as helping with energy security, and decarbonising the country’s power supply, the development of these projects would also aid in helping the firm achieve its own global ambition to be carbon neutral by 2040. 

If all three projects are progressed, they would collectively be capable of securing up to 4.7 GW of flexible, decarbonised generation capacity – enough to produce electricity to power the equivalent of 8.1m UK homes, while capturing 11m t/y of CO2. 

All three projects are located close to industrial clusters with proposed CO2 networks or will have access to shipping facilities, which would enable the CO2 to be transported and stored by third parties. Where possible, utilisation options for the captured CO2 will be targeted, RWE said. 

All three projects are now preparing to apply to the UK’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s Track 2 Phase 2 cluster sequencing funding application process.