The 50plus power plant is the culmination of many years of research. In the light of the debate on climate protection, we want to help to develop technologies that will cut CO₂ emissions to a relevant amount. The huge leap in efficiency from 45 percent (status of the current modern power plants) to over 50 percent is the result of several unrelated measures.

Perhaps the most important of these is raising the temperature of the steam to over 700 degrees and its pressure as it enters the turbines to at least 350 bar (700 degrees technology). Nickel-based materials are required for this purpose. These are new kinds of materials that primarily consist of nickel and contain almost no iron. They are deployed in the water-steam circuit where the temperatures are higher than 600 degrees and they replace the iron-based materials used until now. This particularly applies to the boilers, the steam piping system and the turbines. Additional techniques to optimize the process (e.g. heat recovery) are also deployed to achieve the target efficiency.

The components made of innovative materials can withstand a steam temperature of 700 degrees. They are currently being tested as pat of the COMTES700 project in the hard coal-fired power plant in Scholven. This test plant has delivered valuable insights and has been in operation now for more than 20,000 hours.

This joint project with other power generating utilities is sponsored from EU funds. It is a major step down the path towards the demonstration power plant.