At the heart of the CO₂ scrubbing facility is an absorber. This contains a scrubbing agent that captures carbon dioxide at low temperatures and releases it again at high temperatures.

The cooled flue gas from the power station process flows quickly through the absorber from bottom to top, where it comes into contact with a scrubbing agent that flows from top to bottom, capturing the CO₂.

Before the flue gas, purified of carbon dioxide as much as possible, leaves the absorber, it is sprayed with water in order to remove residues of the scrubbing agent. The carbon-reduced flue gas is then released into the atmosphere via the cooling tower.

The scrubbing agent, saturated with CO₂, is then fed into a desorber, where it is heated to about 120°C. This separates the carbon dioxide from the scrubbing agent again in highly purified form.

The aim is to use the captured CO₂ in future large-scale plants as a raw material for the production of low-emission fuels. Their manufacture will also make use of renewable electricity, which can be stored for the long term for subsequent use. Internationally, deep geological formations have already been used on a large-scale hi-tech basis to store the captured CO₂.

After the CO₂ is removed, the hot scrubbing agent is cooled down and pumped back to the absorber, where the scrubbing cycle starts over again.

Animation (in German)