carbon capture

Testing continues at NET Power for a much-watched project that is demonstrating production of low-carbon natural gas power. The project is using a supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) cycle, and its developer is confident that the technology will be commercially deployed in 2022. Mike McGroddy, principal at 8 Rivers Capital, the venture capitalist firm that is […]

ExxonMobil and FuelCell Energy announced a new joint-development agreement to enhance carbon capture fuel cell technology, as the groups work on a process to capture combustion exhaust from power plants and other industrial facilities. The two-year deal, announced Nov. 6 and an extension of an earlier agreement, is aimed at optimizing core technology, process integration, […]

Chemical looping combustion (CLC), an advanced coal power technology that could markedly simplify carbon capture at power plants, has moved significantly closer to commercialization, owing to a breakthrough in oxygen carrier durability, the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) said.    The national laboratory, which is part of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), revealed on […]

Coal combustion was responsible for more than 0.3 degrees C of the 1-degree C surge in global average annual surface temperatures above pre-industrial levels—and that makes coal the single largest source of the global temperature increase, the International Energy Agency (IEA) says in a new report.  The finding, outlined in the IEA’s Global Energy & […]

A project to demonstrate a novel power cycle that promises to produce low-cost, reliable, and flexible power from natural gas—while generating no atmospheric emissions, and fully capturing carbon dioxide—is inching closer to commissioning. Its developers are now actively assessing siting for the first commercial-scale 300-MW NET Power facility. NET Power’s 50 MWth Demonstration Plant in La […]

U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry on February 28 said nuclear power and the use of clean coal technology are the way to combat climate change and reduce emissions from the energy sector. Perry, speaking at a joint press conference in Washington, D.C., with Fatih Birol, director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said, “We believe […]

Hitachi and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), two giant Japanese companies with substantial stakes in the world’s power sector, are separately rethinking future business directions as sizable disruptions shake up prospects for traditional market growth. In recent months, Hitachi refined its business model to prepare it for explosive demand in  digitalization solutions, focusing heavily on grid […]

WASHINGTON—A new report from the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners examines the state of national carbon issues. Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage: Technology and Policy Status and Opportunities is a valuable tool for state regulators and others to understand current CCUS policy and technology, learn about its successful applications nationally and internationally, and consider […]

The budget bill passed by Congress and signed by President Trump in the early hours of February 9 extends a host of tax credits for energy technologies, including provisions to help the Vogtle nuclear expansion in Georgia as well as U.S. carbon-capture projects. The legislation also provides support for renewable energy, including for small wind […]

The Swiss company Climeworks in October said it had begun another round of testing for a direct air capture (DAC) facility at a 300-MW geothermal power plant in Hellisheidi, Iceland. Climeworks, which is

The UK dropped the ball on carbon capture and storage (CCS) development and Scotland intends to pick it up, Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced in early September. In the government’s program

Three major firms want to evaluate the possibility of converting a natural gas–fired power plant in the Netherlands into a hydrogen-powered plant to possibly capture its carbon emissions.  Statoil

Winning POWER’s highest honor, the U.S.’s first and world’s largest commercial post-combustion carbon capture system at a power plant is distinctively both a globally significant environmental

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has announced plans to reintroduce legislation called the FUTURE Act, which would extend and expand the federal 45Q tax credit for carbon dioxide capture and sequestration. The bill has the support of both fossil fuel companies and environmental groups. At present, the 45Q provision awards $10 per metric ton […]

A novel demonstration underway at Technische Universität Darmstadt (TU Darmstadt), a research university in Darmstadt, Germany, has shown a calcium carbonate looping (CCL) technology retrofitted at existing

Some naysayers have argued that developing carbon capture technology for use on fossil-fueled power plants is pure folly. But research and pilot tests have continued nonetheless, and various solutions have

Southern Co. announced yet another lag beyond a new in-service date for its Kemper County integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) project. Along with concerns about delays and mounting cost increases afflicting the plant’s coal gasification component are how it will be used in the face of cheap gas prices. The company’s subsidiary Mississippi Power last […]

FuelCell Energy and ExxonMobil will test a novel fuel cell carbon capture technology at a Southern Co. 2.7-GW coal- and gas-fired power plant in Alabama, the companies said on October 27. The technology under development by the companies uses carbonate fuel cells to concentrate and capture carbon dioxide streams from power plants. A pilot plant […]

In a major development for a novel carbon capture technology, developers are preparing to commission a 1-MWt oxy-fired pressurized fluidized bed combustion (oxy-PFBC) pilot test facility in Canada’s capital city, Ottawa. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and its Canadian counterpart, Natural Resources Canada, commemorated the facility’s construction and commissioning in a ribbon-cutting ceremony on October 18 […]

  GE commits to a five-year, $7.5 million membership with MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) GE will become a Sustaining Member of the MITEI and participate in MITEI’s Low-Carbon Energy Centers Furthers GE’s commitment to the Boston area and expertise focused on solutions to carbon reduction   CAMBRIDGE, Mass., August 30, 2016–GE (NYSE:GE) announced it will […]

Readers of a certain age will recall a scene in the movie Jaws when the local police chief, having glimpsed the gigantic shark up close from the back of the deck, reels back into the cockpit to observe: “You’re going to need a bigger boat.” In climate change, we have reached the “bigger boat” moment. […]

Fuel cells are a rapidly expanding option for distributed generation, with fuel cell–based power plants now being deployed in capacities into tens of megawatts (see “59-MW Fuel Cell Park Opening Heralds

Fuel cells powered by natural gas, biogas, and hydrogen are a rapidly expanding option for distributed generation, with fuel cell­­–based power plants being deployed in capacities into tens of megawatts. But as the technology improves and costs begin to scale, opportunities for other applications are being explored. One such application may even go beyond power […]

SaskPower’s Boundary Dam Unit 3 carbon capture facility is now operating with a reliability rate of over 92%.

A research photobioreactor designed to capture significant amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) from power plant flue gas for high-density algae cultivation is showing promise. The bioreactor patented by California-based algal firm PHYCO2 is undergoing a multi-year trial at Michigan State University’s (MSU’s) T.B. Simon Power Plant, a co-generation plant that provides steam, heat, and power […]

In April’s editorial, “When Technology Tails Wag Power Dogs,” Editor Gail Reitenbach mused about whether the use of captured carbon dioxide (CO2) for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) represents a viable way forward for carbon capture, use, and sequestration (CCUS). This is a subject both of us have covered in various ways over the past few […]

When you hear “drone,” do you think, toy, military craft, dangerous device, or useful tool? Depending on the type of unmanned aircraft system (aka, drone) we’re talking about, any of those descriptors

Construction of a 50-MWt plant that will demonstrate a novel oxyfuel natural gas power system using Allam Cycle technology with zero atmospheric emissions has kicked off in La Porte, Texas. The demonstration plant is being built by the technology’s developer, Durham, N.C.–based NET Power, along with Exelon Generation, CB&I, and 8 Rivers Capital. NET Power’s […]

Mississippi Power’s lignite-fired Kemper County integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plant is seeing yet another delay and $110 million in new costs, a filing with state regulators shows. The company’s December 2015 monthly status report for the nation’s first commercial power plant that will capture and store carbon dioxide anticipates that it will now […]

When it comes to a transition away from coal, TransAlta Corp. is playing political defense. The Canadian province of Alberta contains among the richest fossil energy resources in the world, including oil (and