Energy Dept. handing out $67M to speed carbon capture technology

The U.S. Department of Energy announced today that it will be funneling $67 million into 10 projects working on capturing the carbon dioxide produced by coal-fired power plants. Over the next three years, these projects will be developing ways to make current carbon capture techniques work with existing power plants.

One of the biggest challenges with carbon capture is that the equipment is often unwieldy, energy intensive, and expensive. Many power plants haven’t wanted to take on the extra costs, nor pump more of the energy they generate into these efforts. The goal behind the new funding is to reduce these costs by 30 percent for coal plants.

Carbon capture is one of the Obama administration’s major cleantech missions. The president has outlined objectives to make this type of technology cost effective within the decade and to establish between five and 10 demonstration-scale projects by 2016. A number of different methods are being tried, including carbon solvents, membrane filters and absorption systems.

Here’s a rundown of today’s funding recipients:

- American Air Liquide ($3 million): Coupling a membrane filter with cryogenic processing technology to see if cooler air temperatures can enhance membrane performance.

- Gas Technology Institute ($3 million): Developing hybrid separation methods that use a combination of absorption and membrane technologies.

- 3H Company ($2.7 million): Using a non-aqueous solvent to separate carbon dioxide into two liquid phases, the company will be setting up a demonstration facility at a power plant operated by utility E.ON in the U.S.

- Akermin ($2.6 million): Claiming to capture up to 90 percent of the carbon dioxide released from flues with a special solvent formulation, the company will work to deploy its technology to filter 2,000 liters of gas an hour.

- ION Engineering ($3 million): Using an ionic liquid as a solvent instead of water, ION claims it can reduce the energy it requires to run by 60 percent and cause less corrosion.

- University of Illinois ($1.3 million): Investigating the use of carbonate salt as a solvent for absorption-based, post-combustion carbon dioxide capture.

- URS Group ($3 million): Looking into concentrated piperazine as a solvent for absorbing carbon dioxide from flue gas released by coal-fired power plants. URS says its method offers faster absorption rates and lower volatility.

- Membrane Technology and Research ($14.7 million): Constructing a 1-megawatt membrane capable of capturing 90 percent of carbon dioxide from a coal-fired power plant that releases 20 tons of carbon dioxide a day.

- Siemens Energy ($8.9 million): Designing, installing and operating a pilot-scale plant at the TECO Energy Big Bend Station. Siemens plans to use an amino acid salt formulation as a solvent.

- ADA-ES ($11.1 million): Refining the design of a commercial post-combustion carbon dioxide capture technology for a 39-month pilot-scale test.

Full descriptions of all of these projects can be found here.

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