A undertaking close to Basin Electrical’s Dry Fork Energy Station, a 405-MW coal-fired energy plant close to Gillette, Wyoming, has grow to be the primary of 4 Division of Power (DOE) picks to obtain federal funding to kick off a large-scale carbon seize pilot.
The DOE’s Workplace of Clear Power Demonstrations (OCED) on Aug. 27 mentioned it awarded the undertaking, “Carbon Seize Pilot at Dry Fork Energy Station,” almost $5 million out of a complete federal value share of as much as $49 million underneath its Carbon Seize Massive-Scale Pilot Tasks Program. The funding kicks off Part 1 actions on the Wyoming Built-in Check Middle, which is situated seven miles north of Dry Fork Energy Station.
Underneath the pilot undertaking, industrial analysis agency TDA Analysis will collaborate with Schlumberger Expertise Corp. to deploy a carbon seize system at a Wyoming Built-in Check Middle take a look at bay that’s geared up to ship as much as 23 MWe of flue fuel. The pilot intends to seize “greater than 90% of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from coal flue exhaust at excessive purity (+95%), utilizing TDA Analysis’s extremely secure, low-cost sorbent-based expertise in a vacuum and focus swing adsorption course of,” OCED mentioned in an Aug. 27 reality sheet.
The pilot undertaking’s key purpose is to deploy a system that would seize as much as 158,000 metric tons of CO₂ every year. “If efficiently demonstrated, TDA Analysis’s expertise may very well be scaled up to be used at coal crops world wide,” the company mentioned.
Throughout Part 1, which is able to span 18 to 22 months, TDA Analysis will full a front-end engineering design (FEED) research to find out the specs for carbon seize. It is going to additionally start workforce planning, undertaking allowing, and supply enter into the Nationwide Environmental Coverage Act overview course of. Plans additionally entail establishing relationships and pathways to construct on group profit actions in later undertaking phases and consider a preliminary plan for CO2 offtake, “together with the potential for carbon sequestration through Wyoming CarbonSAFE and any contingency offtake choices,” the company mentioned.
The measure marks the primary award after negotiation underneath the Carbon Seize Massive-Scale Pilot Tasks Program, for which the 2021-enacted Infrastructure Funding and Jobs Act (IIJA) allots $937 million. Based on the DOE, this system’s key intention is to develop “transformational carbon seize applied sciences to considerably enhance the effectivity, effectiveness, prices, emissions reductions, and environmental efficiency of coal and pure fuel use in energy era, manufacturing, and industrial amenities.”
In February 2024, OCED shortlisted three large-scale pilot tasks that might proceed to award negotiation, together with Dry Fork. These picks stay underneath award negotiation, the DOE says.
Carbon Seize Pilot at Cane Run Producing Station, Louisville, Kentucky. Led by PPL Corp. with as much as $72 million in federal funding, this pilot undertaking will search to seize 95% of CO2 emissions from Cane Run 7, a 640-MW gas-fired unit in Louisville, Kentucky, utilizing a solvent-agnostic superior heat-integrated expertise developed by the College of Kentucky. The pilot might seize 90,000 metric tons of CO2 yearly.
Cane Run 7, which got here on-line in June 2015, was Kentucky’s first pure fuel mixed cycle (NGCC) producing unit. The undertaking workforce reportedly plans to companion with an off-taker that may purify the captured CO2 to be used as beverage-grade CO2.
Carbon Seize Pilot at Vicksburg Containerboard Mill, Vicksburg, Mississippi. Underneath this pilot and with a possible federal value share of $88 million, RTI Worldwide, in collaboration with Worldwide Paper (IP), SLB, and Amazon, plans to implement a carbon seize system at IP’s pulp and paper mill in Vicksburg, Mississippi. “The Carbon Seize Pilot at Vicksburg Containerboard Mill expects to seize no less than 90% of the CO2 from the mill’s energy boiler flue fuel utilizing RTI’s non-aqueous solvent (NAS) expertise,” DOE paperwork say. “This primary-of-its-kind carbon seize undertaking for the pulp and paper trade goals to seize 120,000 metric tons of CO2 per 12 months … and transport it to a web site for everlasting geologic storage.”
Carbon Seize Pilot at Massive Spring Refinery, Massive Spring, Texas. Delek US Holdings plans to make use of as much as $95 million in federal funding to deploy a carbon seize system at its Massive Spring Refinery, an oil refinery in Massive Spring, Texas to seize 145,000 metric tons of CO2 per 12 months from the refinery’s Fluidized Catalytic Cracking Unit (FCCU). The pilot is predicted to show a second-generation post-combustion carbon seize course of developed by Svante Applied sciences to seize no less than 90% of the CO2 from the refinery’s FCCU.
The DOE says it chosen the Carbon Seize Massive-Scale Pilot Tasks by means of a merit-based overview course of following a funding alternative announcement in February 2023. The tasks have been evaluated on standards similar to technical benefit, monetary viability, work plan, administration, and group advantages, with picks made to make sure a balanced portfolio that meets statutory necessities.
—Sonal Patel is a POWER senior editor (@sonalcpatel, @POWERmagazine).
