Zero Emission fossil fuel Power plants
Country profile
Denmark
30 May 2007
ZEP Country Profile DK
Introduction
This document contains a short summary of the national current situation with respect to Zero
Emission Fossil Fuel Power Plants. It aims to support the taskforces of ETP-ZEP.
Information sources used for this profile are:
-
Danish Energy Authority (www.ens.dk)
Geus (WWW.GEUS.DK)
NOAH (www.noah.dk)
Højteknologifonden (www.hoejteknologifonden.dk)
DONG Energy (www.dongenergy.dk)
Vatenfall (www.vattenfall.dk)
Højteknologifonden (www.hoejteknologifonden.dk)
Energinet.dk (www.energinet.dk)
1 Background information
Energy production: energy mix: present and future
Electricity production in Denmark
TWh
50
40
30
20
10
-
1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015
Wind
Biomass
Waste
Erimul.
Natural gas
Coal
Oil
Consumption
Source: EnerginetDK
For more detailed information on the energy flow in Denmark, see appendix 1.
CO2 emissions: present and future
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CO2-emissions
Mio. ton
45
35
25
15
5
-5
1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015
Realized
CO2 low-price scenario
CO2 high-price scenario
CO2 adjusted
Source: EnerginetDK
Possibilities with respect to underground storage (source:GEUS)
The possibilities for underground storage of CO2 in Denmark has been evaluated in two
regional studies, Joule II and GESTCO including storage potential in depleted hydrocarbon
fields and deep saline aquifers. In the Joule II report the total storage capacity for CO2 in
Denmark in unconfined onshore aquifers of Triassic and Jurassic age was estimated to 47 Gt
based on a general assumption that 2% of the entire pore volume of the mapped formations
was filled. Restricting the storage capacity to confined traps reduced the estimated total
storage capacity to 5.6 Gt. Using experiences from natural gas storage facilities in Denmark,
Germany and France the GESTCO study assumes that 40% of the total pore volume within a
defined trap may be filled with CO2. In the GESTCO project eleven well-defined closures all
located in the central part of the Danish Basin were mapped from seismic surveys and their
storage potential was evaluated using data from existing deep wells. Initial calculations
suggest that these structures alone may provide storage for at least 16 Gt CO2, equivalent to
400 years of production. The different storage capacity estimates between the Joule II and
GESTCO projects illustrates the principle of "less storage capacity with better confidence"
and it is anticipated that the site characterization process developed in the CO2STORE project
will increase the amount of knowledge, but also reduce the estimate of total storage capacity
within the countries.
In the site selection phase four stratigraphic intervals were considered for potential storage in
deep saline aquifers. These are Bunter Sandstone and Skagerrak Formations (Triassic),
Gassum Formation (Upper Triassic-Lower Jurassic), Haldager Sand Formation (Middle
Jurassic) and Frederikshavn Formation (Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous) with the Gassum
Formation being the most attractive regarding burial depth versus reservoir properties. The
Gassum Formation consists of fine- to medium-grained, locally coarse-grained sandstones
interbedded with claystones and the porosity and permeability are known from a number
wells (porosity 18-27%, maximum 36% and permeability up to 2,000 mD) and acts as
reservoir for storage of natural gas at Stenlille and as geothermal reservoir at Thisted.
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The aquifer storage of CO2 is dependent not only on the properties of the reservoir but also on
the integrity of the sealing formation. The primary sealing unit for the Gassum Formation is
marine mudstones of the Lower Jurassic Fjerritslev Formation characterised by a relatively
uniform succession of marine slightly calcareous claystones. The formation is present over
most of the Danish Basin with a varying thickness of up to 1,000 m. It is the sealing formation
at the Stenlille natural gas storage site and has proven tight to natural gas stored in the
Gassum reservoir below. A possible secondary seal is formed by carbonate rocks of Late
Cretaceous-Danian age and chemical reactions between dissolved CO2 and the carbonate rock
(described in GESTCO).
Source: GEUS (Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland)
Enhanced oil recovery in the north see and ? According GEUS it is possible to store 16 billion
tons of CO2 in the Danish underground, corresponding to 400 years production of co2.
Main energy-related industry
DONG energy
DONG Energy has major activities in the field of electricity and heat production. DONG
Energy generates electricity and heat at 25 primary and small-scale power stations in
Denmark, based primarily on coal and natural gas, yet also including biofuels such as straw,
wood pellets, wood chips and municipal waste.
DONG Energy distributes natural gas to nearly 116,000 customers in Denmark, and as the
power supply company in Greater Copenhagen responsible for distributing electricity to
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900,000 Danish customers.
Vattenfall.
Vattenfall’s generation in Denmark consists of thermal and wind power, and controls
approximately 24 per cent of the Danish power generation capacity.
Maersk Oil
Maersk Oil is the operator for DUC (Dansk Undergrunds Consortium), which is a joint
venture for the exploration and production of oil in Denmark. The participants are A.P.
Møller-Mærsk (39%), Shell (46%) and Chevron (15%). In 2005, a daily oil production of
some 310,000 barrels and a daily sales gas production of some 1,000 million cubic feet have
been achieved from the fields operated by Maersk Oil in the Danish North Sea, primarily
from tight reservoirs. The high production level is accomplished through extensive water
flooding by injecting more than 600,000 barrels of water per day into the reservoirs.
Ministries and governmental instututions, that deal with CCS:
-
Energistyrelsen (Danish Energy Authority)
Transport og energiministeriet (Ministry of Transport and Energy)
Miljøstyrelsen (Danish Environmental Protection Agency)
Miljøministeriet (Danish Ministry of the Environment
2 R&D
2.1 Ongoing or planned R&D projects
Castor
CASTOR, "CO2 from Capture to Storage", is an European
initiative grouping 30 partners (industries, research institutes
and universities) coming from 11 different European countries
and partially funded by the European Commission under the 6th
Framework Program. The overall goal of CASTOR is to
develop and validate, in public/private partnerships, all the
innovative technologies needed to capture CO2 and store CO2
in a reliable and safe way.
Esbjerg Power Plant
Source: DONG Energy
Key targets of CASTOR will be:
 .. A major reduction in post-combustion capture costs, from 50-60 € down to 20-30 €
per ton of CO2 (large volumes of flue gases need to be treated with low CO2 content
and low pressure).
 To advance general acceptance of the overall concept in terms of storage performance
(capacity, CO2 residence time), storage security and environmental acceptability.
 To start the development of an integrated strategy connecting capture, transport and
storage options for Europe.
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CASTOR activities fall into 3 technical sub-projects (SP):
1 - "Strategy for CO2 reduction" (7% of the budget)
2 - "Post-combustion capture" (67% of the budget)
3 - "CO2 storage performance and risk assessment studies" (26% of the budget)
In SP2 and SP3, large-scale field tests (capture facility, injection and monitoring facility) will
be executed to validate the research results. In all sub-projects innovative methods and tools
will be developed, building upon the state of the art knowledge of participating organisations
which are leading in the field of CO2 capture, transport and storage.
CASTOR will make important contributions to reduce major bottlenecks that still remain in
CO2 capture and geological storage by providing:
 An improved process for capturing CO2 in large volumes of low pressure flue gases at
a much lower cost than today (development of new liquids and membranes).
 Capture validation site.
 New examples of storage sites needed for achieving public acceptance.
For national and European governments there will be a clearer view on clean fossil fuels as a
solution to achieve Kyoto objectives while ensuring security of energy supply for Europe. The
project will enable the research community and the industries to maintain and extend the
leading position on CO2 capture and storage.
The total budget is around 11 M Euro.
CAPRICE
The overall objective of CAPRICE is international cooperation and exchange in the area of
CO2-capture using amine processes with the long-term aim to contribute to the
implementation of these technologies on a large scale. Post-combustion capture using amine
processes is generally considered to be the leading capture technology and will be
implemented first. The overall objective is to be achieved through a cooperation between a
core team from the on-going CASTOR Integrated Project and a Canadian consortium linked
to the International Test Centre on CO2 Capture at the University of Regina in Canada. Both
projects are recognised by the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF). In addition
to this leading academic institutions from Russia, China and Brazil will join this research
cooperation. The detailed technical project objectives are:
 Benchmarking and validation of amine process performance
 Membrane contactor performance validation
 Development of tools for integration into power plants
Important project deliverables are:
 Standardisation of descriptive models for amine processes, components and testing
procedures
 Performance of different membrane contactors evaluated under realistic conditions
 Ready to use tools for integration of amine capture technology with power plants
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



Definition of joint CO2-capture experiments
Preparation the ground for a large scale post-combustion CO2-capture demo-plant
Sharing of global resources to develop post-combustion CO2-capture
Greatly improved understanding of amine processes for post-combustion CO2capture in different environments around the globe, thus facilitating the technology
implementation and scale-up
 Contributing to the CSLF objectives from the EU and Canada through concrete
cooperation
 Extension of the stakeholder involvement in CO2-capture technologies to CSLF
members Russia, China and Brazil.
The project runs from 2007 to 2009. Danish partners are DONG Energy and Vattenfall.
Modelling of CO2 Capture
Main purpose of this Phd. project on Technical University of Denmark is to contribute to an
effective separation of CO2. The focus will be selection and optimization of absorbents and
process conditions. is responsible The project is made in corporation with DONG Energy and
Vattenfall, and the total budget is about 730.000 Euro. The project is supported by the Danish
energy authority with nearly 50 %.
Environment friendly oil recovery through CO2-injection
Using CO2 to enhance oil recovery has huge implication, looking at both better exploitation
of Danish oil resources and the possible storage of CO2 from power plants in old oil fields.
DONG Energy has worked with the theoretical and practical aspects of CO2 emission and
injection for a number of years: Emission with a view to reduce the costs involved for the
power plants, and injection in order to increase oil recovery.
The project will follow two paths: A scientific part, run by the participating research
institutions, and a coordinating part running parallel to the first part and driven by DONG
Energy. The objective of the latter part of the project is for DONG Energy to develop and set
up procedures for assessing the feasibility of increasing oil recovery by CO2 injection. An
important element will be the design of a pilot project to allow testing of selected
fields. The main tasks of the research part of the project are:
 A more precise description and mapping of the interaction between oil, CO2, and
reservoir rock as a result of CO2 injection.
 Improved models for the description of the thermodynamic properties for oil, CO2,
and pore fluids in the reservoir.
 Laboratory measurements of flow conditions in cores of selected material when
flooded by oil, CO2 and reservoir pore fluid.
This part of the project is run by GEUS, GEO and the Technical University of Denmark.
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Throughout the project there will be a close collaboration between the research partners and
the development of the pilot project evaluating the viability of CO2 injection through
simulation of field scale flow conditions during the injection. Also, this part of the project
will include testing and further development of methods for cleaning flue gas that will allow
direct deposition of CO2. This will be linked to a current project at Esbjergværket –
CASTOR.
The project partners are DONG E&P A/S, DONG Energy Generation, GEO, Technical
University of Denmark, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland. The total budget is
about 2,5 mill. Euro, of which 50 % is financed by Danish National Advanced Technology
Foundation.
2.2 Finalized R&D projects
SACS and SACS2
Funded by the EU, industry and national governments, the SACS, SACS2 and CO2STORE
projects have run sequentially from 1998 to 2006, with the aim of developing research into
the potential for large-scale storage of CO2 in underground saline aquifer formations. The
earlier projects, SACS and SACS2, focussed specifically on scientific aspects of the Sleipner
CO2 injection operation. CO2STORE continued the work on Sleipner, but widened its scope
to four new case-studies selecting and characterising potential storage sites in Europe, in both
offshore and onshore settings. As well as establishing protocols for conventional geological,
geochemical and geophysical characterisation and monitoring, significant effort was put into
evaluating requirements for the more holistic discipline of site risk assessment.
Many of the research results from the SACS and CO2STORE projects are published in the
scientific literature but in a somewhat disseminated form. This report consolidates some of the
key findings into a manual of observations and recommendations relevant to underground
saline aquifer storage, aiming to provide technically robust guidelines for effective and safe
storage of CO2 in a range of geological settings. This will set the scene for companies,
regulatory authorities, non-governmental organisations, and ultimately, the interested general
public, in evaluating possible new CO2 storage projects in Europe and elsewhere.
Kalundborg case study, a feasibility study of CO2 storage in onshore saline aquifers CO2STORE (GEUS)
Finalized in 2007, the Danish case study of the CO2STORE project comprises an analysis of
the potential future capture and underground storage of CO2 from two point sources located
close to the city of Kalundborg; the coal fired power plant Asnæsværket and the Statoil
refinery. Initial mapping of the storage structure during the EU funded research project
GESTCO identified a large underground structure forming a potential, future storage site at
Havnsø 15 km to the northeast of Kalundborg. The structure covers approximately 160 km2
and the reservoir at a depth of approximately 1500 m is formed by porous sandstones filled
with saline water. A preliminary calculation suggests a storage capacity of nearly 900 million
tonnes of CO2equal to more than 150 years of CO2 emissions from the two point sources. In
the case study a fictive capture and storage scenario has been formulated and modelled based
on experiences learned through the SACS and GESTCO projects. Detailed geological
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modelling, reservoir simulation, reservoir and cap rock characterisation and risk assessment
are important issues in the case study.
As part of the GESTCO project the economics in the Kalundborg case was modelled using the
DSS module and it was calculated that the total cost would be 32€€/t CO2 avoided with the
capture costs contributing with 2/3 of the amount. In the present case study a new economic
evaluation using a modified version of the GESTCO DSS has been made. The conclusion
from this sensitivity study was that a very high capture cost of e.g. 40€/t could make the
scenario uneconomic which shall be seen in the light that most studies report present costs of
40-50 €/t CO2 captured foreseeing reduction of capture costs to about 20 €/t.
Indications are that the Havnsø geological structure is very suitable for storage of CO2 and is
probably one of the best in Denmark – possibly in Europe. With two large CO2 emission point
sources located in the nearby city of Kalundborg, a source – storage scenario with injection of
4-6 Mt CO2 per year would be feasible, with the possibility of adding similar amounts of CO2
transported in pipeline from sources in the greater Copenhagen area, less than 100 km to the
east. In order to investigate and mature the Havnsø structure to become the first Danish saline
aquifer CO2 storage facility, a step-wise approach is envisaged.
Oxy-fuel Combustion for below zero CO2 emissions
The purpose of this project is by laboratory and pilot scale experiments and theoretical
work/modeling to investigate Oxy-fuel co-combustion of coal and biomass with respect to:
1. General combustion characteristics (required excess air, burn-out and pollutants (CO,
NOx, SO2).
2. Ash characteristics (chemical composition, melting point and fate of potassium and
chlorine).
3. Corrosion of boiler heat transfer surfaces. Flue gas cleaning for SO2 (wet FGD) and
NOx (SCR) in an atmosphere with high CO2 concentration.
4. Operation/control of large suspension fired boilers using the Oxy-fuel process.
The main part of the project is carried out at the CHEC research Centre at Institut for
Kemiteknik, DTU (KT). The approach is mainly experimental, using a pilot scale (5kW fuel
feed rate) entrained flow solid fuel combustor and a 30 kW swirl burner modified for Oxyfuel combustion. These tests may be supported by lab scale tests in a thermogravimetric
analyzer or fixed bed reactor. Corrosion and creep studies will be carried out by DTU and
Vattenfall. Operational/ control issues will be studied by DONG Energy using CFD and
thermodynamic process simulation.
The total budget is about 580.000 Euro, of which 260.000 is supported by Energinet.dk
3 Implementation
To connect the Danish involvement in the FENCO-ERA network to the Danish industrial
sector, a backing group with member from the Danish industry with interests in CCS was
established. The purpose of the backing group is two-way flow of information, where the
Danish interests are coordinated, and results and inputs from the participation in the FENCO ERA network are feed back to the group. Following companies have participated in the
backing group:
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- Haldor Topsøe A/S
- DTU (Technical University of Denmark)
- Rubrik
- Energistyrelsen
- GEUS
- DONG Energy - Generation
- Vattenfall
- Energinet.dk
GEUS has many years of experience with the geological aspects of CCS, and both Vattenfall
and DONG Energy are deeply involved in CCS projects.
4 Public acceptance
The general knowledge of CCS is nearly none existing, as the subject has never been on the
public agenda. CCS has only sporadically been mentioned in the Danish media. There are no
public organizations dealing with public acceptance, and there has been no specific initiatives
directed at public acceptance
5 Government policy
The opinion of the government is basically that CCS may be an interesting, but temporary
solution on the path to 100 % sustainable energy supply. The government supports an R&D
effort towards CCS, but will aspire that this not accomplished at the expenses of R&D within
energy efficiency and sustainable energy. The government will provide some financial
support, but the industrial sector must be the main driver and the main financer.
Denmark participates in the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF), and supports
the idea that CCS is included in the CO2 kvote system as considered by the commission.
However, the government is not proactive in the field of CCS, and runs a wait-and-see policy.
Besides the general statements of CCS being an interesting temporary technology, the
government will only deal with concrete applications on CCS.
In the danish parlament "Folketinget" opinions are relatively identical. The present
government is right-wing, and there is a slight tendency that the farther to the left, the more
skeptical the politicians are. The main concern is that CCS leads to a general approval of
continuous use fossil fuels in the future, hense less effort will be put in the development of
sustainable energy. Today, only the most left-wing party Enhedslisten totally rejects CCS as
an option, and compare Co2 storage with storage of euclear waste.
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Appendix 1: Danish Energy Flow 2005
ZEP Country Profile DK