Success stories

Two flagships projects are currently cofinanced under the RFCS programme.

The ULCOS project: cleaner route to steel production

With 48 partners from 15 countries, the ULCOS project has mounted a major effort to help the steel industry find innovative solutions for reducing its CO2 emissions. It intends to develop the concept for a breakthrough process technology producing steel from iron ore with CO2 emissions cut by half or more compared with those of today's state-of-the-art blast furnaces.

The ultimate objective is to build a pilot plant to demonstrate the potential of the method, thus promoting preservation of the ecosystem in relation to steelmaking.

A number of technologies are currently being examined. The most sustainable will be chosen post-Kyoto for the first half of the 21st century.

This ambitious and strategic project is closely linked to the Framework programme which provides funding of €20 million for a separate part of ULCOS.

COMTES700 project: one major highlight in research funding on Clean Coal Technologies by the RFCS programme.

The objective of COMTES700 is the detailed design, manufacture, erection and operation of a Component Test Facility (CTF) to test high temperature resistant materials needed to realise, in the near future, a European 700°C coal based demonstration power plant. The CTF is installed in the E-ON coal-fired power plant Scholven F located in Gelsenkirchen (Germany).

The project, which began on 1 July 2004 and will run until 31 December 2011, is being carried out by a consortium of six major European partners from industry. It is steered by the COMTES700-Partners Consortium which includes ten further European companies.

The total budget amounts to €15.2 million, 57% being funded by power producers, 3% by equipment suppliers and 40% by the RFCS programme.

COMTES700 will represent a significant contribution to the general objective of the European power generation industry to reach overall efficiencies in the range of 50% for coal fired power plants, as opposed to the current levels of about 43%. An efficiency gain, for instance of 7%, on this basis, leads to savings of nearly 14% in coal consumption and CO2 emissions per energy unit produced.

The COMTES700 project is ongoing. The results obtained so far are very promising.

Last updated on: 2009-12-02