Sargas plant can run on gas, Norwegians insist

Sargas and two of its engineering partners, DSME and SNC-Lavalin, are proposing a feasibility study to verify the conditions  necessary for a new power plant that can run on either gas or 'biopaste' to complement the existing Delimara power station extension that will run on heavy fuel oil.

Reacting to criticism from political parties and other experts quoted by the media that Sargas's technology depended on coal, the Norwegian firm has also denied having any link to any political party and that it never expected to enter a political controversy.

The firm had been suggested to the Prime Minister by former foreign minister John Dalli and has since invited criticism from the green party, Alternattiva Demokratika.

In a statement, Sargas business development manager Martin Rödén said Sargas's technology was not in prototype phase, but was already in full-scale operation in countries like Sweden, Germany and Japan.

"Sargas technology does not depend on coal. Biopaste, a wet mix of biomass and coal, may be used to create a carbon negative plant. The plant can however also be fired on natural gas, also with carbon capture," Rödén said.

Carbon capture is a process that captures carbon dioxide (CO₂) from power plants, and then stored so it does not enter the atmosphere. Rödén said a gas-fired plant configuration would capture the CO2 and still have approximately 50% efficiency.

* Sargas Biopaste with 20% biomass. Capturing 95% of CO2. This means all emitted CO2 derives from Biomass and the plant is carbon negative.

Source: Sargas

"Over 950 plants in operation worldwide are using the HPC technology being used in the carbon capture technology in the Sargas patented combination for pressurized combustion and pressurized capture.

"A Sargas plant would not require any investment from the government. The low cost of electricity to Enemalta would be stipulated in a power purchase agreement which would be negotiated following a feasibility study."

According to Rödén, a pre-feasibility study conducted with Enemalta in February 2011, concluded that the delivered cost of electricity to the grid would be 7.5 cents per kWh, in 2016.

"Based on today's consumer tariffs in Malta, this figure would be around half the current cost of electricity produced today."

Rödén also said the plant will not be floating at sea, but shipped in one piece to Malta by sea and embedded permanently to the ground 200 metres south of the Delimara power station.

"This power station will complement the new HFO and future wind power plants... The proposal does not depend on an EU funding programme. The project is commercially viable."

Rödén also said the new interconnector to Italy would be an opportunity for the power plant to export clean carbon-negative electrical energy from Malta, increasing export revenues. But he said that Italy was one of the more expensive electrical energy markets in the EU, and had a great deficit for clean energy.

Rödén also said that any radiation concerns were dispelled by thorough surveillance systems. "Our reference plant Stockholm has certification that no such pollution has occurred for more than twenty years which can be verified. Such verification and certification would be pre-requisites for a plant in Malta."

Sargas claims it can capture 95% of all CO2 including the carbon-neutral biomass flue gas, and emit less than zero fossil carbon emissions. "The reason why Sargas technology can be very clean and still very efficient and produce low cost power is the fact that is works under pressure. Any power plant engineer or chemist can verify the fact that capturing CO2 and other pollutants under pressure is drastically better," Rödén said.