The Engineer

DoE funds carbon-capture projects

News

The US Department of Energy (DoE) is to fund three projects with almost $1bn (£0.6) to accelerate the deployment of carbon-capture and storage technologies on a commercial scale.

In the first project, American Electric Power (AEP) will design, construct and operate a chilled-ammonia process that is expected to capture at least 90 per cent of the CO2 (1.5m metric tons per year) in a flue-gas stream at the existing 1,300MW Appalachian Power Company (APCo) Mountaineer Power Plant near New Haven in West Virginia.

The captured CO2 will be treated, compressed and transported by pipeline to proposed injection sites located near the capture facility. During the operation phase, AEP plans to permanently store the entire amount of captured CO2 in two separate saline formations located approximately 1.5 miles below the surface.

The project team includes AEP, APCo, Schlumberger Carbon Services, Battelle Memorial Institute, Consol Energy, Alstom and an advisory team of geologic experts. The 10-year project will be funded with $334m (£203m) from the DoE.

In the second project, Southern Company Services (SCS) will retrofit a CO2-capture plant on a 160MW flue-gas stream at an existing coal-fired power plant - Alabama Power’s Plant Barry - which is north of Mobile, Alabama.

The captured CO2 will be compressed and transported through a pipeline, and up to one million metric tons per year of CO2 will be sequestered in deep saline formations. Southern Company Services will also explore the use of the CO2 for enhanced oil recovery.

In addition to SCS, the project team includes Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, Schlumberger Carbon Services, Advanced Resources International, the Geological Survey of Alabama, EPRI, Stanford University, the University of Alabama, AJW Group and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The 11-year project will be funded with $295m (£180m) from the DoE.

In the third project, Summit Texas Clean Energy will integrate Siemens gasification and power generating technology with carbon-capture technologies to effectively capture 90 per cent of the CO2 (2.7m metric tons per year) at a 400MW plant to be built near Midland-Odessa in Texas.

The captured CO2 will be treated, compressed and transported by CO2 pipeline to oilfields in the Permian Basin of West Texas for use in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operations. The DoE is funding this eight-year project with $350m (£213m).