BIGCO2 R&D Platform – Objectives and Achievements

Abstract

The BIGCO2 R&D (BIGCO2) Platform is an international collaborative research project aiming at developing several enabling technologies and innovative solutions supporting a large-scale deployment of CO2 capture from power generation and underground storage of CO2. All main routes for CO2 capture are investigated. The project is coordinated by SINTEF Energy Research and the budget of the current project period (2007-2011) is 16 M€.BIGCO2 builds knowledge and technology underpinning demonstration of power generation with carbon capture and storage (CCS) at industrial scale. The project aims at closing critical knowledge gaps in the CO2 chain to enable sustainable power generation from fossil fuels based on carbon capture and underground storage of CO2. BIGCO2 is unique in terms size, diversity, and the fact that it comprises the whole CO2 chain. The project includes extensive international collaborative effort bringing together expertise and research infrastructure of competent research institutes and universities, supported by leading vendors, energy companies, and oil and gas companies.This paper presents the structure, the original objectives and the achievements of BIGCO2. Further, for each research task, the results are analyzed in light of the objectives. Each task leader has analyzed the results in the following context of: originally stated objectives, results, and if the results meet the objectives.The purpose of BIGCO2 is to develop new knowledge to enable power generation with CCS. Tangible objectives are: 90% CO2 capture rate, 50% cost reduction, and a fuel-to-electricity penalty less than 7% compared with state-of-the-art power generation. Partners of the Consortium are: Statoil, GE Global Research, Statkraft, Aker Clean Carbon, Shell, TOTAL, ConocoPhillips, ALSTOM, DLR, TUM, NTNU, CICERO, SINTEF Materials and Chemistry, SINTEF Petroleum Research, and SINTEF Energy Research. The University of Oslo is a subcontractor to the project. Further, BIGCO2 benefits from a strong collaboration between the combustion research facility at Sandia National Laboratories (USA) and SINTEF Energy Research. The main sponsor of BIGCO2 is the Research Council of Norway, with considerable co-funding from the industry partners and Gassnova. The research challenges and approach are extensively presented in [1].