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Tag:

CCS

New Gas Plant Venture Aims at Carbon Capture From a Different Angle

New Gas Plant Venture Aims at Carbon Capture From a Different Angle

written by

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is often promoted as a way for coal power to be made “clean”: Projects such as the in-progress Kemper power plant in Mississippi and the recently announced Petra Nova project in Texas aim to trap the carbon dioxide from burning coal and then store it into underground storage or into previously depleted wells to extract more oil. (See related story: “Clean Coal Test: Power Plants Prepare to Capture Carbon.”)

CCS is being applied to natural gas-fired electricity as well (just today a new effort in Scotland was announced), and a new project in the U.S. aims to produce fossil power with zero emissions and greater efficiency than other facilities have been able to achieve. A group of companies, including Chicago-based energy producer Exelon and Durham, N.C.-based technology purveyor NET Power, this week announced plans for the project, a $140 million carbon-capture natural gas-fired plant in Texas.

The “first of its kind” demonstration plant is different because, instead of using steam as a component of electricity generation the way a typical plant would, it instead produces a pure stream of carbon dioxide from natural gas combustion and uses that to produce additional electricity more efficiently. The carbon dioxide that emerges from that high-pressure, oxygen-only combustion process needs no further processing to be injected underground, according to John Thompson, director of  the Fossil Transition Project for Clean Air Task Force, which monitors and promotes new clean energy technology.

The energy saved by not having to process the carbon dioxide further would address one of the pitfalls of CCS: the process of capturing and storing the carbon is typically so energy-intensive that taking a bite out of how much energy a plant can produce per unit of fuel. But Thompson said that the NET Power project, which is targeted for completion in 2017, would convert natural gas with the same or higher efficiency compared to a traditional gas plant, even when you factor in the carbon capture.

The NET Power project is “really focused on coming up with a much cheaper way of capturing carbon dioxide from natural gas emissions,” Thompson said.  The plant will have a modest 50-megawatt capacity and lower capital costs than a conventional plant; the project release said the cost of power from its CCS gas plant will be “highly competitive” with that of conventional plants. The project’s backers are also looking at ways to transfer the technology to coal plants, but it can only be applied at plants that gasify coal rather than burning it conventionally, Thompson said.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has encouraged a transition to natural gas from coal as way for states to meet emissions reduction targets associated with its proposed Clean Power Plan. Gas emits about half as much as coal when burned, but the emphasis on natural gas for reducing emissions has been questioned by some who point out that it might hinder the scaling up of renewable energy, and that natural gas production sites are likely emitting much more methane than the government initially estimated. (See related stories: “Switch to Natural Gas Won’t Reduce Carbon Emissions Much, Study Finds” and “Methane Emissions Far Worse Than U.S. Estimates, But Study Concludes Natural Gas Still Better Than Coal.”)

Thompson said that CCS is needed for gas so that it can support renewable energy, serving as backup power without undercutting greenhouse gas emissions reduction efforts. “Intermittent energy sources like wind and solar power work best when they have a low carbon backbone to work with,” Thompson said. With the transition from coal to natural gas currently under way, that backbone is getting clean in the United States, he said, but “has to get a lot cleaner.” (Vote and comment: Can Natural Gas Be a Bridge to Clean Energy?)

Article by Christina Nunez of National Geographic, appearing courtesy 3BL Media. 



October 17, 2014 0 comment
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Carbon Capture and Storage Projects Lagging Worldwide, Study Finds

written by Yale Environment 360

Major projects aiming at capturing and burying carbon dioxide underground have slowed worldwide, according to a study by the Global CCS Institute in Australia.

Despite the common view among experts that carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies could play a

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October 11, 2013 0 comment
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UK Revives £1 Billion Competition to Boost Carbon Capture Sector

written by Yale Environment 360

The UK has re-launched a £1 billion ($1.6 billion) competition to promote the large-scale adoption of carbon-capture technology, an investment that government officials hope will make the UK a global leader in the emerging low-carbon energy sector.

Launched by the Department of Energy and Climate

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April 4, 2012 0 comment
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The New Age of Power Plants According to EPA

written by Walter Wang

EPA is proposing to take common-sense steps under the Clean Air Act to limit carbon dioxide pollution from new power plants. EPA’s proposed standard reflects the ongoing trend in the power sector to build cleaner plants that take advantage of American-made technologies. The agency’s proposal, which does not apply to plants currently

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March 30, 2012 0 comment
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The Carbon Capture Challenge and the Green Dream

written by Walter Wang

This week, as Vice Chairman of the Review Committee for the Zayed Future Energy Prize, I had the chance to assess firsthand many great examples of renewable energy and emissions reducing technologies and solutions from SMEs & NGOs, large corporations and individuals from around the world.

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November 10, 2011 0 comment
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Carbon Capture and Storage: A Long-Term Solution for Natural Gas?

written by Walter Wang

If natural gas is a “bridge fuel,” what’s on the other side?

This question kept popping up in recent weeks as a series of reports predicted gas would become a growing part of the global energy mix in the coming decades. Gas, while cleaner burning than coal, still falls short of the low-emissions scenarios envisioned by world leaders,

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June 20, 2011 3 comments
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Carbon Storage Projects Expanded in 2010 Despite Economic Challenges

written by Yale Environment 360

Twenty-one new carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration projects were launched worldwide in 2010, despite rising technology costs, according to a new report by Australia’s Global CCS Institute.

That growth represented a 10 percent increase from the previous year, and bumped the total number of projects active

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March 10, 2011 0 comment
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Why Carbon Capture and Sequestration Won’t Stop Climate Change

written by Justmeans

One way fossil fuel industries are trying to stay relevant in a world moving toward better, cleaner ways of producing energy is to argue that carbon emissions which contribute to climate change can be captured and stored underground. This “carbon capture and sequestration,” is supposedly a technological fix that will allow energy companies to keep burning fossil

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January 13, 2011 0 comment
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Carbon Sequestration – an optimal clean technology?

written by Sharon Bunkin

While coal-fueled power plants are directly responsible for roughly one-third of our CO2 emissions, the DOE indicates that coal is expected to dominate our domestic power generation at least for the next 25 years.  Globally, the increased demand for coal-fueled electricity will translate into a 57% rise in related CO2 emissions by 2030 according to the IEA.

One technology that attempts to solve the CO2 emissions crisis is carbon capture and storage, or CCS. Generally speaking, CCS captures the CO2 emissions from coal power plants and other industrial sites and injects the CO2 into underground porous rock formations in hopes of permanent sequestration.

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May 27, 2009 7 comments
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