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The world's first power facility to capture and store a portion of its carbon dioxide has begun operating in Appalachia
November 6, 2009 | 37
The Mountaineer Power Plant (pictured here) is the first in the world to capture some of the carbon dioxide it emits from burning 3.5 million tons of coal yearly and sequester it two and a half kilometers underground....[More]
The carbon-capture unit, dwarfed by the smokestack and cooling tower, employs Alstom's "chilled ammonia" technology to remove more than 90 percent of the carbon dioxide from 20 megawatt's worth of emissions—or 1.5 percent of the plant's total CO2 output....[More]
Flue gas from coal burning is cooled from roughly 150 degrees Celsius out of the boiler to 55 degrees C after going through various cleaning processes....[More]
The cooled flue gas enters the central, wide column (pictured here) at Mountaineer. Inside the tall tank, a slurry of ammonium carbonate—better known as baker's ammonia—pulls 90 percent or more of the CO2 out of the flue gas by chemically reacting to form ammonium bicarbonate....[More]
The ammonium bicarbonate is pumped to these tall, thin reaction towers where steam is added to raise the temperature and pressure. That increase drives its transformation back to pure CO2, which is separated out....[More]
The nearly pure CO2 (mixed with some water) is pressurized to roughly 98 kilograms per square centimeter to become a milky fluid.
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Closer to the injection wells at the Mountaineer Power Plant site, the liquid CO2's pressure is raised to more than 140 kilograms per square centimeter in these compressors.
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Liquid CO2 flows down 2,450 meters through this wellhead, dubbed AEP 1.
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The captured CO2 is stored more than two and a half kilometers underground in the pores between the grains of rock that make up sandstone, which is usually filled with brine....[More]
Plug-in hybrids, like the one pictured here, could reduce greenhouse gas emissions resulting from transportation, particularly when recharged by no- or low-emitting sources of electricity, such as coal-fired power plants with carbon capture and storage....[More]
A prior demonstration with a smaller unit at the Pleasant Prairie power plant in Wisconsin proved that the chilled-ammonia technology could capture more than 90 percent of the CO2 from just under two megawatts' worth of flue gas....[More]
The carbon-capture-and-storage unit at Mountaineer eliminates roughly 1.5 percent of the carbon dioxide the plant would otherwise emit. And other issues remain, such as the ash visible in the storage ponds for the Philip Sporn Power Plant in the background....[More]
The U.S. and China together burn more than four billion metric tons of coal annually, and Mountaineer consumes 3.5 million metric tons in a typical year—10 to 12 barge loads a day—some of which is transported by train from as far away as the Powder River Basin in Wyoming....[More]
Capturing CO2 from all that coal burning is vital to any efforts to combat climate change, according to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and other experts....[More]
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37 Comments
Add CommentSomeone want to tell me just how much ammonia is being sprayed around in these stacks, and how much will need to be stored on site as the plants scale up? It sounds like a massive hazmat MCI if any of that ammonia containment ruptures.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAm I missing something here? How can we call clean coal - "clean" when it costs 15 - 30% more energy (hence we have to burn that much more coal) to only capture 1.5% of the carbon released into the atmosphere? Or am I wholly misguided in what I read from this article? Otherwise, this seems like an excercize in politics, and nothing to do with environmental concerns; as the only one to benefit here, are the coal mines.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat you're missing (and to be fair, it was not clearly stated in the article) is that the carbon capture unit, as it is a tech demo, is only operating on a very small portion of the plant's total flue gas outflow.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo, while it's only removing 1.5% of the *total* CO2, if you look at the fraction that it's removing *from the gas it's actually treating*, you'll find that it's removing *90%* of the total CO2. And that's pretty cool. :)
Great, 1.5%. Good job guys. While this is a demonstration, couldn't they have captured some meaningful amount of CO2?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is basically a cheap political ploy by the coal industry to greenwash their industry a bit. Too bad, because we need meaningful action today, not silly little stunts like this.
I might simply be uninformed on this, but has anybody looked into the effect on deep soil biotic processes that pumping this much CO2 into the ground has?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThey are burying it beneath several kilometers of rock. I doubt that this will have any effect on even the deepest soil.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy don;t they go further and seperate the oxygen from the carbon by using any form of fast growing plant. Afterwards they can either make biochar or just dry and store the more concentrated carbon in the plant material. The oxygen would be released and not need to be stored underground. Would this be to inexpensive or not profitable enough?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this'The mountain of coal' was by far the most powerful image in that slideshow.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf I understand this correctly (the wording in the article was imprecise), it will cost $700 million dollars to scale this pilot project up to capture 20% of the total CO2 released by the plant. Would this be the definition of "clean coal"?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf it is, than I think we should do some cost comparisons with other low carbon alternatives to energy generation. Such as solar thermal or solar power plants that don't produce CO2 at all....
AV Solar Ranch One was recently given approval to construct a 230 megawatt plant near L.A and deliver power to PG&E for 13.3 cents/kWh.
The Mountaineer plant can produce 1300 megwatts of "clean coal" power for about 9 cents/kWh. But this is power that removes only 20% of the CO2 (which apparently adds about 4 cents/kWh to the 5 cents/kWh normal operating cost). Therefore, my back of the envelope calculation suggests that zero CO2 coal power will cost approximately 25 cents/kWh. This does not include the externalized costs of toxic ash and mercury pollution.
Not having all the figures and costs, I admit that this is an imperfect apples-to-apples comparison. But truly cleaning up coal power will probably be about 2x more expensive than solar power. If our goal really is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, than its obvious (at least to me) that pollution free methods like solar power are easy and cheap alternatives to carbon sequestration.
Implicit in a macro interpretation of the Second Law of Thermo is the physical necessity that all nonsolar energy techno fixes generate more disorder than order.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis includes CO2 capture.
This means we either go solar or decline.
I call this thermodynamic imperative the 'Thermodynamic Razor' since it cuts through most of what is uninformed energy-contention today--such as CO2 dumping.
We have no choice, except to go solar. So, shouldn't our energy be focused on the political problem of going solar instead of the technically sweet?
The First Law is yeoman,
Net Energy; EROI.
The Second is atman,
Go solar or die.
"And now roughly 1.5 percent of the CO2 billowing from its stack is being captured in an industrial unit rising from the concrete in its shadow and then pumped underground for storage. In case you were wondering, this last phase is called "clean coal"."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAre you joking? 1.5 %!? This is clean? My god, its time to move away from fossil fuels, NOW. We have the technology for solar and wind NOW. It doesn't need further development. California is doing it. The state emits 50% less carbon per capita than any other state. SCIAM, tell your coal and oil company advertisers to go away.
The writer does not understand the difference between power and energy. The plant generates 1,300 megawatts of power. As long as it does so it will power 1 million homes forever, not just a month.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBut, more important, this coal likely comes from the lopping off of the mountain tops of West Virginia and dumping the residue into local streams.
CLEAN COAL?!?!?!
PeterT
Baeocystin, you lie. it is NOT removing 90% of total CO2. AND, its not cool at all. its warm... as in global warming.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisand, Baeocystin, you fail to mention the disastrous environmental damage that is being done to the land to get at the coal deposits. coal is NOT the answer. the Chinese have already figured it out and are moving far ahead of us in green technology.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe notion of "powering" a home seems antiquated. Foods can be stored and prepared without refrigeration or cooking. Living beings can cleanse themselves and their attire without drying up wells and contaminating others through efficient water, land use and biochemistry. Electricity is simply a carrier of energy between alternating resources of demand and supply. Carbon capture through reforestation and photosynthesis is lost to forest fires and decomposition when it should be burned for transport, comfort and enhanced hygiene. Corrosion and excess friction create demands exceeding sustainability in needless rapid transit when data can do it for free. A two and half hour B737 aircraft flight does 1/2 mile to the gallon. How much electricity is wasted processing antivirus program code to keep us updated?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLook for your electric bills to triple or worse if this boondogle becomes law.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDoes anyone have any meaningful proof that CO2 does produce Climate Change? Last I checked none of the models that predicted catastrophe have been any where near accurate. Why are we waisting our money on unproven and dis proven science to begin with? I guess to make certain people rich? Like Goldman Sacks? Al Gore? Follow the Money, this is a Fad that will die once too many jobs are lost and everyone wakes up to the real science not the theories.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWorldwide carbon capture and storage will take decades to implement, and so arrive too late to affect climate change.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe solution is to act now to remove CO2 from the air using biomass pyrolysis, worldwide, but on a local scale. Read how to do this at www.eprida.com by clicking on the technical pages. There is a tremendous opportunity for small and large-scale investment.
Absolutely disgusting technology !! Do these companies think the American people are stupid? It is a NEW day! We are demanding that things be done differently. It is time for the United States to take up that banner and claim our place in the world again as a MAJOR player again- beginning with Copenhagen, replacing the head of the Chamber of Commerce,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisthen MAJOR investment in wind, solar AND new fuels.!! We can do this and be proud once again!!
No coal-- no nuclear-- we are better AND smarter
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNo Coal, No Nuclear, No Business. I guess this is our future. I'm Looking forward to living in poverty.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere is NO future with coal
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere is NO future with nuclear
Your logic is impeccable!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt would appear that coal,"because of our huge surpluses", if used cleanly is the way to go.Retrofiting current plants to run cleanly,would reduce our dependence on oil,a long as more of our cars become hybrid electric with pullout type batterys that plug in to home systems.This combinded with backyard and rooftop solar and wind, generators, would be a huge plus to our economy,because it would put more money back in the hands of every day people with less money going overseas ,as for funding it would be a good investment for ultilites getting their money back from electricity being produced at each home that is taking part,and using the grid that is already in place.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt sounds like a large amount of energy is needed to cool down the emissions, pressurize it, and pump it underground. How do the costs of doing all this stack up to the environmental savings of reducing carbon emmissions? Is it worth it?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCarbon capture technology makes more sense to me if it is applied to conversion of coal to transportable fuels like dimethyl ether, methanol, or synthetic gasoline. In these processes, CO2 is easier to separate and the extra cost can be recovered through the offsetting higher values of the products and reduction of dependency on oil imports. Also, greater economies-of-scale are possible when these plants are built close to coal mining regions. PRB seems like one such perfect opportunity.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is my opinion that carbon is nature's most perfect means to make hydrogen fuel transportable. It seems a waste of precious carbon to merely burn it in a stationary plant as an energy source.
+9-+-This the first case in the world of stack gas from a coal-fired power plant being stored in other than in exhausted petroleum sites. From this operation we can learn how much CCS adds to the cost of electricity when added to an existing power plant,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI would love for all the renewable energies to be up and running now, but they are not. This may not be a perfect system, but it is a step into a transition that must take place. Coal is used so widely to generate power that if we can reduce 1% of the carbon emissions, it will add up to a huge amount. Then, we will have the energy needed to make all the renewable energies a reality.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWithin a generation, politically astute heirs of American affluence are expected to express fashionable wealth shame; haunted by Honor� de Balzac's untrue observation Behind every great fortune there is a crime . Tabloid culture documents our schizophrenic admiration for celebrity success followed by our joy of celebrity destruction. Generations of Buffet and Gates progeny like affable Rockefellers and Vanderbilts will fashionably dismiss achievements of their forbears for public approval.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's part of American DNA to surrender to the shame of success. It is the reason American voters sat back as 20 years of investor driven global trade agreements surrendered industry, including American jobs to unprivileged foreign economies. By enforcing punishing environmental standards on American industry and our middle class, our lobbying investor class simply got to move smoke stacks from our back yard to theirs. Even those who sailed to and settled America knew that our planet's atmosphere has a way of moving around. If global warming issues have scientific merit, that same science must asknowledge that global environment is about fluid entropy that assures that what's floating in the air and water anywhere ends up everywhere. This isn't and never was about the environment.
It is dishonest and irresponsible not to "follow the money" when global warming politics wraps its para-religious tentacles around the science of global warming. While we fine Americans for not replacing their car's made elsewhere catalytic converters and not scrubbing smoke stacks with ammonia, foreign manufacturers and workers run their industry and heat their homes with high sulfur coal.
So many mystifying problems are about our American middle class who didn't connect the dots as post WWII capital moved from here to elsewhere.
How long is it going to take before all the World's power plants are retro-fitted to scrub their flue gases, with gazoducts constructed to carry the gases to far-distant underground reservoirs to get rid of them? 10 years? 40 years? Is this short enough to avoid a climatic tipping-point? Is it long enough to enable alternative energy technology to evolve? It is probably about the same time for nuclear fuels to run out! One thing is certain : Investors are in for a roller-coaster ride...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisStoring CO2 underground is based on the illusion that CO2 is a bad greenhouse gas. CO2 already absorbs as much infrared as is possible. Adding more CO2 to the atmosphere cannot cause more infrared to be absorbed. Wikipedia article "Greenhouse Gas" shows the saturation of the greenhouse effect. For example, more infrared at 10.6 microns cannot occur if CO2 concentration increases.
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Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou are correct as I understand the situation all sequestration technology is bassakwards using large amounts of fuel for less than no return. It appears to be a talking point, the CO2 would be a hazard if large amounts were sequestered and released at once.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI do not understand why not fix the carbon in place in the bio-system? In other words use plants or algae and sunlight to fix the carbon and allow it to enter the ecosystem as a benign form? Are not the topsoil's of the earth being depleted of organic matter? Cant this help instead of being stored in a manner that could be a problem if it were released catastrophically? Its cheap to pump it and any other solution would cost more? What if 100 years collection of CO2 were released from a coal plant in one go? Hmmm?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have read about another carbon capture pilot program in Germany (google "schwarze pumpe Vattenfall")They are pumping pure Co2 underground. Though also not without opposition. They had to abandon their first choice of storage because of environmentalists opposition, go figure.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf you really want affordable and clean electricity go nuclear, wind and sun will never drive a modern industrial society.
@ # 23 RockyMissouri
it will be a pretty miserable future relying on sun and wind only, only the smartest will survive, and you are obviously not one of them.