Gaz de France Produktion Exploration Deutschland GmbH (GDF-PEG) is approaching CO2 sequestration from a different angle.
The Altmark gas field in Saxony Anhalt, Germany, is Western Europe’s largest substantially depleted gas reservoir and the site of GDF-PEG’s new pilot project, which will investigate the use of carbon dioxide to increase recovery rates and therefore extract more gas.
The Linde subsidiary LKCA in Dresden is responsible for planning and constructing the CO2 injection system here. The enhanced gas recovery (EGR) method is designed to extract additional natural gas that could not otherwise be recovered.
The carbon dioxide injected will remain in the field. According to investigations by independent research institutes, this procedure can increase natural gas recovery by 5 to 10 percent.
The pilot project aims to provide definitive answers to all remaining questions surrounding carbon dioxide injection. It is scheduled to begin in early 2009, with an anticipated runtime of three years. Around 100,000 tonnes of CO2 are estimated to be injected during that time.
Also partnering with GDF-PEG is the energy group Vattenfall Europe, which launched operations at the world’s first oxy-fuel pilot facility at the Schwarze Pumpe lignite power plant in September 2008.
Vattenfall will be transporting the CO2 generated here to Altmark, 400 kilometres away, where the greenhouse gas will be injected into the heavily depleted gas field.
Together, Germany’s Schwarze Pumpe separation facility and Altmark project constitute Germany’s first comprehensive trial of CCS technology. Linde’s expertise in CO2 purification, liquefaction and storage once again comes to the fore here.
As soon as all of the above-ground components were delivered to Altmark at the beginning of 2009, work to start filling the CO2 tanks began.
The liquefied, cryogenic (approx. – 28°C) carbon dioxide will initially be transported from the Schwarze Pumpe pilot facility to Altmark by road tanker, but this is just a solution for the test phase.
Industrial-scale implementation of the CO2 capture process will require pipeline (on-shore) and ship (off-shore) transport to the storage sites.
At a glance | |
| Name: | CO2 storage |
| Country: | Germany |
| Raw material: | CO2 |
| Process technology: | Enhanced gas recovery with CO2 |
| Cooperation partner: | Gaz de France Production Exploration Germany GmbH (GDF-PEG) |
| More information: | CO2 plants |
