NRG and Powerspan announce large-scale demonstration of carbon capture and sequestration

NRG Energy, Inc. and Powerspan Corp. have announced a memorandum of understanding to demonstrate at commercial scale one of the most promising technologies for carbon dioxide (CO2) capture from conventional coal-fueled, electric power plants - Powerspan's ECO2 technology. The post-combustion, regenerative process uses an ammonia-based solution to capture CO2 from the flue gas of a power plant and release it in a form that is ready for safe transportation and permanent geological storage.

Biopact tracks developments in CCS because the technique can be applied to bioenergy systems, in which case they would yield carbon-negative energy and fuels (earlier post).

To date, CO2 capture demonstrations on coal-fueled power plants have been conducted only at pilot scale, or one to five megawatts (MW) of electricity. This CCS demonstration, which will be conducted at NRG's WA Parish plant near Sugar Land, Texas, on flue gas equal in quantity to that from a 125 MW unit, is expected to capture and sequester about one million tons of CO2 annually - ranking it among the world's largest CCS projects and potentially the first to achieve commercial scale capture and sequestration from an existing coal-fueled power plant.

Once captured, the CO2 is expected to be used in enhanced oilfield recovery operations in the Houston area. Powerspan's ECO2 demonstration facility will be designed to capture 90 percent of incoming CO2 and is expected to be operational in 2012.

The ECO2 process (schematic, click to enlarge) is a post-combustion CO2 capture process for conventional power plants that is differentiated from other approaches by its simpler capital equipment design and significantly lower energy consumption. The technology is suitable for retrofit to the existing coal-fueled, electric generating fleet as well as for new coal-fueled plants. The regenerative process is readily integrated with Powerspan's patented Electro-Catalytic Oxidation, or ECO(R), process for multi-pollutant control of sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), mercury, and fine particulate matter from power plants:
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Under a cooperative research and development agreement announced in May 2004, Powerspan is collaborating with the U.S. Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory on the development of the CO2 removal process for coal-fueled power plants. The CO2 capture takes place after the NOx, SO2, mercury and fine particulate matter are captured. Once the CO2 is captured, the ammonia-based solution is regenerated to release CO2 and ammonia. The ammonia is recovered and sent back to the scrubbing process, and the CO2 is in a form that is ready for geological storage. Ammonia is not consumed in the scrubbing process, and no separate by-product is created. The process can be applied to both existing and new coal-fueled power plants and is particularly advantageous for sites where ammonia-based scrubbing of power plant emissions is employed.

Under the memorandum of understanding, NRG and Powerspan will design, construct, and operate a 125-MW CO2 capture facility at the WA Parish Plant and supply the captured CO2 for safe transportation and permanent geological storage in order to demonstrate the technical, economic, and environmental performance of a large-scale CCS system that potentially could be deployed on existing coal-fueled generating facilities globally. NRG will work with government and non-government entities to provide additional funding for the project.

As our country's leaders move to consider climate change legislation, they should be confident that the power sector is already acting in anticipation of government action in order to support the rapid transition to a low-carbon economy. The successful deployment of 'clean coal' technology like ECO2 is absolutely essential to our common goals of reliable and affordable electricity, enhanced energy security and substantially reduced greenhouse gas emissions. - David Crane, President and CEO, NRG Energy, Inc.

NRG is actively implementing a repowering program to bring an additional 10,000 MW of power to America using diverse fuel sources and technologies including no- and low-carbon generation technologies such as a commercial scale gasified coal (IGCC) plant in New York, two new nuclear units in Texas and wind power in Texas and California.

Large-scale, integrated CCS demonstrations provide commercial validation of the critical enabling technologies needed to reduce CO2 emissions significantly while maintaining coal-fueled power plants as a vital component of our nation's electricity supply. We are grateful to be working with an industry-leading company like NRG in the commercial demonstration of our ECO2 technology and look forward to its broader application to reduce the impact of coal-fueled power plants on climate change. - Powerspan's CEO, Frank Alix.

NRG Energy, Inc. owns and operates a diverse portfolio of power- generating facilities, primarily in Texas and the Northeast, South Central and West regions of the United States and also in Australia, Germany and Brazil. NRG is a member of USCAP, a diverse group of business and environmental organizations calling for mandatory legislation to achieve significant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. NRG is also a founding member of "3C--Combat Climate Change," a global initiative with 42 business leaders calling on the global business community to take a leadership role in designing the road map to a low carbon society.

Powerspan Corp., a clean-energy technology company based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is engaged in the development and commercialization of proprietary multi-pollutant control technology for the electric power industry.

References:
Biopact: Carbon-negative bioenergy is here: GreatPoint Energy to build biomass gasification pilot plant with carbon capture and storage - October 25, 2007

Biopact: Carbon-negative bioenergy recognized as Norwegian CO2 actors join forces to develop carbon capture technologies - October 24, 2007