E.ON, Siemens to cooperate on carbon capture

FRANKFURT, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Germany's Siemens (SIEGn.DE) and utility E.ON EONG.DE said on Wednesday they are to cooperate on a new process to remove carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) in power generation.

In a joint statement, the Siemens Energy and E.ON Energie segments of the two groups said they would set up a pilot plant in Germany by 2010 to further develop the process up to 2014.

"The aim of this partnership is the development of an economic and efficient method for carbon capture -- an important step on the way towards the low-carbon power plant," they said.

The two plan to test a solvent with special characteristics to be used to capture CO2 from flue gases.

Power stations are the world's biggest polluters, accounting for 25 percent of climate-harming CO2 emissions overall.

Efforts continue worldwide to capture, store or neutralise CO2 emissions from coal and gas burning through carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.

CCS could become key to tackling climate change and has the backing of policy makers, but commercial production is far off.

The statement said both E.ON and Siemens believed that so-called "post-combustion capture" of CO2, on which their pilot plant will be based, was the best of various technologies now being tested across the globe.

If successful, the process could be used both to upgrade existing power stations as well as forming the basis for new power plant projects, they said.

(Reporting by Vera Eckert)