CCS

  • Capturing Carbon and Seizing Innovation: Petra Nova Is POWER’s Plant of the Year

    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

  • Coal Industry Urges Trump to Continue Funding Fossil Energy Research

    If President Donald Trump truly wants to revitalize the coal industry, he should continue to support the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Fossil Energy’s research efforts, representatives of the coal industry said in a March 10 letter. “In light of recent calls for dramatic cuts to the federal budget, we want to stress that […]

  • 2017 Will be the Year for North American CCS, Expert Says

    Carbon capture and storage (CCS) in North America is about to have its year, Julio Friedmann, senior adviser for energy innovation at the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, said during the February 8 Global CCS Institute’s annual Americas Forum. “We are just now like fully deployed and hopefully that will finally quash […]

  • Petitioners File Briefs in NSPS Case Days after Change of Administration

    Having been denied a request for an extended schedule, petitioners in an ongoing lawsuit challenging the merits of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for coal-fired power plants late on January 23 filed a series of briefs with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The briefs filed […]

  • World’s Largest Post-Combustion Carbon Capture Project Completed

    Petra Nova—a commercial-scale post-combustion carbon capture project designed to remove more than 90% of the carbon dioxide (CO2) from a 240-MW slipstream of flue gas off of the W.A. Parish generating station in Fort Bend County, Texas—has been completed, according to project partners NRG Energy Inc. and JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corp. The […]

  • DOE’s First Advanced Fossil Fuel Loan Guarantee Commitment Awarded to Methanol Plant with Carbon Capture

    The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) first loan guarantee under an $8 billion solicitation for advanced fossil energy projects may go to a methanol production facility in Lake Charles, La., that will employ carbon capture technology for enhanced oil recovery. The DOE said in a statement on December 21 that it offered a conditional commitment to […]

  • Coal Magnate Tells Trump to Lower His Expectations

    Although optimistic about the future of the coal industry under the Trump administration, Robert Murray, CEO of Murray Energy Corp., the largest underground coal mining company in the U.S., does not expect the president-elect to bring back coal mining jobs or spur new coal-fired power plant construction. “I’ve asked President-elect Trump to temper his comments […]

  • Plant Barry to Pilot Fuel Cell Carbon Capture from Coal and Gas Generation

    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 […]

  • Pilot Test of Pressurized Fluidized Bed Combustion Carbon Capture Technology Kicks Off in Canada

    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 […]

  • New Technology Offers Hope for Cost-Effective Carbon Capture and Storage Systems

    Academics at the University of Sheffield—a public research university in the UK—have begun two new carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects, searching for cheaper methods of capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from fossil-fueled power plants. The work is being funded by the European Commission’s (EC’s) Horizon 2020 Low Carbon Energy program. Solvents Could Be Game-Changing The […]

  • Kemper IGCC In-Service Date Pushed Back by a Month

    Mississippi Power has pushed back the in-service date of its much-delayed Kemper County integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant by a month, to October 31, 2016. Initial production of syngas at the plant began on July 14, and testing continues of gasifier B and related lignite feed and ash systems. “The schedule extension provides for […]

  • Employing Fuel Cells for Carbon Capture

    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

  • Is EOR a Dead End for Carbon Capture and Storage?

    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 Technology Tails Wag Power Dogs

    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

  • Radical Energy Breakthroughs—Without the Risk

    Among the greatest revolutions of the modern world is one that most of us take for granted: electrification. When we flip on the light switch, turn on the TV, or plug in our cell phones, power is there, 99.99%

  • What Unites OPEC, U.S. Shale, and Power Generation

    The OPEC secretary general and Saudi Arabia’s minister of petroleum shared their views on low oil prices, shale, and climate change at IHS CERAWeek.

  • GE’s Immelt: It’s a World of “Slow Growth and Volatility”

    We live in a world of “slow growth and volatility,” said Jeffrey Immelt, chairman and CEO of General Electric, but there’s an opportunity to “make a lot of money” if you have courage in such times.

  • TransAlta Plays Defense with Coal Out, Renewables In

    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

  • UK Axes CCS Competition, Puts Two Big Carbon Capture Power Projects at Risk

    The UK has canceled its flagship £1 billion ($1.5 billion) competition to help commercialize carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology from power plants. The decision by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) was announced in a three-sentence release to the London Stock Exchange just days before crucial climate change negotiations are due to […]

  • Advisory Committee to DOE: U.S. Must Level Playing Field for Coal, Carbon Capture Technologies

    The world must have carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology to address climate concerns, but commercializing CCS will require a level playing field, an industry advisory council appointed by the Department of Energy (DOE) underscores in a new white paper. The report released by the National Coal Council (NCC) on Nov. 10 responds to a […]

  • Coal Plants Without CCS Can Meet EPA Standards, EPRI Study Says

    Certain types of coal-fired power plants are capable of meeting the 636 kg CO2/MWh emissions limit in the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) new source performance standards for new plants without relying on carbon capture and storage (CCS), but doing so will require leveraging cutting-edge technologies to improve efficiency, according to a new study from the Electric […]

  • Power Giants to Get Federal Funds to Develop Large-Scale Carbon Capture Pilots

    The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) wants GE to plan and propose a large-scale pilot test of a carbon dioxide capture solution that uses a class of amino silicone compounds used to soften hair or clothing. The

  • Carbon Engineering Launches Novel Carbon Capture Pilot Project in Canada

    Alberta-based Carbon Engineering is inaugurating a pilot project today in Squamish, British Columbia, that will capture carbon dioxide (CO2) directly from the atmosphere. The company, funded by private investors, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates and oil sands financier Murray Edwards, has developed technology based on research conducted by Harvard University–based Professor David Keith’s research groups […]

  • NRG Energy to Reorganize, Seeds New Renewables Company

    NRG Energy has embarked on a “reset” that will see a separation of its core distributed generation and fossil fuel businesses.  The company, headquartered in Princeton, N.J., wants to “simplify” NRG Group to cut down expenses and debt. In a transition that will begin now and be fully effective on Jan. 1, 2016, it will separate […]

  • U.S. and China Advance Clean Coal Agreement

    The U.S. and China on Tuesday finalized a memorandum of understanding that will allow them to jointly advance carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) and other clean coal technologies for commercial use.  The agreement between the Department of Energy (DOE) and China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) was set up on Aug. 26 during the U.S.–China […]

  • DOE Funds Coal Research and Carbon Storage Projects

    The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) announced on August 17 that it will dole out a total of almost $17 million to research new CO2 storage technologies through DOE’s Carbon Storage Program and to research coal conversion and utilization through NETL’s University Coal Research Program. Nine projects will receive funding […]

  • Carbon Capture Projects Receive Federal Funds

    The bulk of newly announced federal funding for research and development of carbon capture technologies will be committed to post-combustion capture, pre-combustion capture, and biological carbon dioxide (CO2) use. The Energy Department on Aug. 13 outlined 16 projects that it chose to receive funding through the National Energy Technology Laboratory’s (NETL’s) Carbon Capture Program. The […]

  • SaskPower’s Boundary Dam Carbon Capture Project Wins POWER’s Highest Award

    Courtesy: SaskPower There was no debate among our editorial team when it came to selecting the most interesting and worthy project worldwide for this year’s top award. Boundary Dam Power Station Unit 3 is the world’s first operating coal-fired power plant to implement a full-scale post-combustion carbon capture and storage system. It did so more […]

  • Regulator Orders Mississippi Power to Issue Kemper IGCC Rebates

    Mississippi Power must rebate $281 million in funds collected since 2013 for rate increases related to the lignite-fired power plant under construction in Kemper County, the Mississippi Public Service Commission (MPSC) ordered on Tuesday.  The state regulatory body also ordered the company and its parent company Southern Co. to stop collecting Kemper’s rate on customer […]

  • Canada’s SaskPower Opens Carbon Capture Test Facility

    SaskPower, the Saskatchewan provincial utility that made history last year by developing the first full-scale post-combustion carbon capture retrofit for an operating coal-fired power plant, has taken the next step in fostering development of the technology. Its Carbon Capture Test Facility (CCTF) has officially been launched in Estevan, Saskatchewan. The June 18 launch was attended […]