U.S. Energy Dept. Doubles Down On CO2 Capture Investment
The U.S. Energy Dept. is continuing to spend billions of dollars on carbon capture and storage technology, announcing this month it will distribute about $25 million to eight projects aimed at reducing the cost of carbon dioxide capture. The awards, announced by DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory on Sept. 1, follow $43 million awarded to 26 other carbon-capture projects earlier this summer and more than $6 billion the agency has invested in various technologies since 2008.
The largest recent award, valued at $15 million, is for FuelCell Energy Inc. to design, fabricate and test a $24-million pilot-scale system that will use the company's CO2 separation system. AECOM is a partner on the project. The companies are set to use fuel cells to absorb carbon dioxide from a 2-MW coal-fired powerplant. If the project goes well, FuelCell says it will expand the system to a 25-MW plant. The company expects to finish site selection later this fall.
Another award, for $4 million, allows Dresser-Rand Co. to design, build and test an $8-million supersonic compressor for new and existing coal plants. Supersonic systems are expected to have lower cost and a smaller footprint and use less electricity than existing carbon-capture technology.
Six projects—to be managed by the University of Illinois, University of Kentucky, NRG Energy, Alstom Power, Southern Co. and General Electric Co.—were each awarded $700,000 to $1 million for the first phase of large-scale carbon capture and storage pilot projects. The University of Illinois project is expected to capture about 500 tonnes of CO2 a day from an existing on-campus coal plant. Linde Group, BASF, Burns & McDonnell and Affiliated Engineers Inc. are partners.
A team, comprising the Electric Power Research Institute and WorleyParsons, is working on the University of Kentucky project, fabricating, installing and testing a carbon-capture system on an existing powerplant. Southern Co. will partner with AECOM and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America to improve existing solvent-based carbon-capture processes.
