Emerging technologies/current projects

• In a joint $4.11mil project of International Power Australia and the Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies, the performance of three different kinds of carbon sequestration technologies are being evaluated.

• A post-combustion-capture pilot plant has been established at Loy Yang Power. The pilot plant is designed to capture CO2 from power station flue gases using a range of solvents.The project is a joint collaboration between Loy Yang Power, International Power, CSIRO‟s Energy Transformed Flagship and the CO2CRC (including Monash and Melbourne Universities).

Loy Yang Power and MBD Energy Limited have signed an agreement that will see an algae-producing demonstration plant built on the Loy Yang site.

The plant will produce algae oil (for biodiesel or plastic production) and algae meal (a feed for livestock or fertilizer) from a process using sunlight and waste nutrients (wastewater, sewage, etc.).

Dual Gas Pty Ltd has proposed to develop an approximately 600 MW demonstration power station project in the Latrobe Valley to demonstrate at commercial scale HRL's new power generation technology called integrated drying and gasification combined cycle (IDGCC). The primary fuel used for power generation will be synthesis gas (syngas) generated from brown coal, and natural gas is expected to be used as a start -up fuel as well as a supplementary fuel.

The demonstration project's average CO2 emissions over the life of the project are expected to be approximately 31% to 36% lower than the current best performing Latrobe Valley brown coal power station. The demonstration project which will also use dry cooling equipment, is expected to consume around 75% less water than the best current brown coal fired power station in the Latrobe Valley.