Planned U.S. CCS Demonstration Will Be Largest Test of MHI’s Amine Technology
A public-private partnership that includes the Energy Department, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), and Southern Co. is planning the largest start-to-end coal-fired demonstration of MHI’s amine solvent carbon capture technology at an existing Alabama coal-fired unit by 2011.
If the project comes to fruition, between 100,000 and 150,000 tons of CO2 per year—the equivalent of emissions from 25 MW of the plant’s generating capacity—would be captured from Alabama Power’s Plant Barry near Mobile, Ala., Southern Co. said Friday.
The CO2 will be supplied to the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (SECARB), which will transport it by pipeline from the plant and store it in a deep geologic formation within the area of the Citronelle Oil Field, about 10 miles from the plant, operated by Denbury Resources. The Southern States Energy Board is leading the SECARB effort.
"This project will help increase our knowledge of carbon capture and sequestration, technology we must demonstrate at a commercial level in the effort to reliably generate electricity using coal with reduced greenhouse gas emissions," said David Ratcliffe, Southern Co. chairman, president, and CEO.
"The main challenge facing deployment of carbon capture and sequestration technology is demonstrating its effectiveness at a large scale," Ratcliffe added. "Our involvement in this and other related projects is part of our commitment to be a leader in finding solutions that make technological, economic and environmental sense."
The CO2 capture technology to be used in this project, called “KM-CDR,” was jointly developed by MHI and the Kansai Electric Power Co. It deploys an advanced amine-based solvent that reacts readily with CO2 in flue gas before being separated and compressed so that it is ready for pipeline transport.
The MHI process reportedly offers improved performance and lower cost than other existing capture technologies. The process has been demonstrated at smaller scale at J-POWER’s coal-fired Matsushima Power Station in Nagasaki, Japan, and is currently being deployed commercially on natural gas–fired systems in Malaysia, Japan, India, and Abu Dhabi.
Plant Barry, located in Bucks, Ala., has a total capacity of 2,525 MW and includes seven generating units: five coal-fired units and two natural gas–fired combined-cycle units.
Source: Southern Company, MHI