U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced today that a project with NRG Energy has been selected to receive up to $154 million, including funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Located in Thompsons, Tex., the post-combustion capture and sequestration project will demonstrate advanced technology to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. It will also assist with enhanced oil recovery efforts from a nearby oil field.
“Advancing our carbon capture and storage technology will create new jobs in America and reduce our carbon pollution output,” said Secretary Chu. “It’s another example of our country’s innovation at work.”
The NRG Energy project was selected under the third round of the Clean Coal Power Initiative (CCPI), a cost-shared collaboration between the federal government and private industry to demonstrate low-emission carbon capture and storage technologies in advanced coal-based, power generation. The goal of CCPI is to accelerate the readiness of advanced coal technologies for commercial deployment, ensuring that the United States has clean, reliable, and affordable electricity and power.
NRG will construct a 60-MW carbon-capture demonstration facility at the company’s W.A. Parish Unit 7 in Thompsons, Tex. The six-year project will demonstrate an innovative integration of several important advances in carbon capture and sequestration technologies, including:
• Fluor’s advanced Econamine FG Plus carbon-capture process, using several different novel amine solvents
• Ramgen’s advanced carbon-dioxide-compression system
• The integration of highly efficient co-generation to provide the necessary steam and electricity
• Enhanced oil recovery sequestration in one of the Texas Gulf Coast oilfields near the Parish plant
The project will show that post-combustion carbon capture applied to existing plants can be done economically, especially when the plant has the opportunity to sequester carbon dioxide in nearby oilfields.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE; Washington, D.C.) will provide up to $154 million in federal funds, which will be matched by NRG Energy.
Source: DOE; www.energy.gov