Foster Wheeler to lead UK CCS plant development

LONDON Jan 31 (Reuters) - Swiss-based engineering group Foster Wheeler Energy has been appointed by the UK's 2Co Power to lead its carbon capture and storage (CCS) power plant development.

2Co Power said it expected the 3 billion pound ($4.70 billion) Don Valley Power Project at Stainforth in South Yorkshire to become operational in 2016.

"The planned 650 megawatt (MW) Don Valley Power Project ... will provide low carbon electricity to the equivalent of around a million UK homes, capturing at least 90 percent of what would otherwise be its entire CO2 output (up to five million tonnes a year)," 2Co Power said in a statement.

"Planning permission for the power plant has already been granted, making it well placed to start main construction activities in 2013," it added.

Jonathan Briggs, managing director at 2Co Power said Foster Wheeler's appointment would help ensure that the project was delivered on time.

The Don Valley Power Project, which 2Co Power says has attracted an initial 180 million euros ($236.05 million) in European Union funding, is a combined coal gasification plant, with CO2 capture equipped.

2Co Power said that it would also have a conventional style gas-fired power station, but one that is fired by a hydrogen-rich fuel.

2Co is a CCS company backed by private equity finance.

Foster Wheeler is global engineering and construction contractor and power equipment supplier based in Geneva.

($1 = 0.6377 British pounds)

($1 = 0.7625 euros) (Reporting by Henning Gloystein; editing by Jason Neely)