RWE Power is a wholly-owned subsidiary of RWE AG, Germany’s largest power producer. About 10,000 employees are working in lignite open cast mines, power plants, upgrading facilities and administration.
The company contributes with its power production capacity of about 13 GW based on lignite, nuclear and hydro power to the broad energy mix of the RWE group with renewable energies and natural gas.
RWE is also Germany’s largest consumer of sewage sludge, a renewable source of CO2. RWE invests in the development of environment friendly technologies. For RWE CCUS and sector coupling are important options to reach the climate protection targets.
RWE was and is partner in various national and international projects to develop and demonstrate CCUS. Since 2009, RWE’s CO2 capture pilot plant is in operation for more than 95,000 hours as a part of various development programs.
Several CCU demonstration projects have been or will be implemented at RWE’s Innovation Centre at Niederaussem, Germany, such as MefCO2, ALIGN-CCUS, TAKE-OFF, OCEAN and LOTER.CO2M aiming at the production of fuels and chemical feedstocks from renewable energy and CO2 to reduce greenhouse gases and emissions in an effective way.
Main Tasks in the Project ECO2Fuel
- RWE’s Innovation Centre at Niederaussem will be the site for the testing campaigns (24/7 operation) of the 1 MW CCU demonstrator
- RWE will also demonstrate the use-case “back-up power production using e-fuels and exhaust gas recycling”
- The exisiting infrastructure comproises: CO2-capture plant, CO2-compression/filling, CO2-tank and a peak power generator module.
- As site owner for the large demonstrator RWE is responsible for the permitting of the demonstrator, contact point of the authorities and will support the partners in the design and installation of the equipment.
- The performance test of the demonstrated technologies will be assessed on basis of the the operating behaviour of the e-fuel synthesis and the peak-power generation with exhaust gas looping during startup, ramp up/down cycles, operational parameter variation and long-term testing.
- RWE will also evaluate the availability of the demonstrated technology and the effort for maintenance, which are important for the technical and economic analysis, the Life Cycle Assessment, and the development of the business case.