For 15 years, the Norwegian science institute SINTEF has been developing Oxyfuel incineration, which uses pure oxygen instead of air to drive the combustion process. Not only is this more efficient, it also makes it easier to capture the emitted CO2.
Not surprisingly, burning waste with oxygen instead of air produces huge amounts of heat. So much so, in fact, that the furnaces and boilers would be destroyed. To prevent this, CO2 from the flue gases is mixed in with the oxygen, lowering temperatures while allowing efficient combustion at normal temperatures.
Mario Ditaranto, who is a Research Scientist at SINTEF Energy Research, explains, “This is what we call oxyfuel combustion.”
SINTEF recently became involved in a joint project with Årdal municipality in Vestland county to build the world’s first waste incineration plant that not only uses oxygen for combustion, but also offers carbon capture and storage (CCS). The project has been named NETOX and is currently in the application stage. Today, large volumes of waste generated in Norway are transported to Sweden, where it is incinerated to fuel district heating plants.
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