DOE ANNOUNCES GRANTS FOR EIGHT OXY-COMBUSTION CAPTURE PROJECTS

Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
07/27/12

The Department of Energy announced this week that it is allocating a total of $7 million in one-year grants to support research into eight oxy-combustion capture technologies. DOE said that the funding, which is also being matched with $2.4 million in industry investment, is the first part of a two-phase effort to develop advanced oxy-combustion capture projects with 90 percent capture at a cost of less than $25 per ton of CO2. While Phase I work will focus on conducting engineering and economic analyses on the technologies, Phase II will aim to move the technologies toward commercialization, DOE said. “As a promising near-term technology, oxy-combustion applied at facilities using pulverized coal-fired boilers for power or industrial applications, will support [carbon capture, utilization and storage] efforts and result in ultra-low emissions,” DOE said in a release.

DOE said that that the National Energy Technology Laboratory will be managing the following Phase I projects, which must still negotiate their awards:

• Alstom Power—Continuing research into its limestone-based chemical looping combustion technology. DOE Investment: $1 million, Recipient Cost-Share: $250,000;
• Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group—Furthering the development of Ohio State University’s coal direct chemical looping process. DOE Investment: $988,000, Recipient Cost-Share: $828,000;
• Gas Technology Institute—Evaluating the potential of a novel pressurized oxy-combustion process based upon a molten bed combustor. DOE Investment: $800,000, Recipient Cost-Share: $200,000;
• Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne—Assessing a novel process for pressurized oxy-combustion in a fluidized bed reactor. DOE Investment: $1 million, Recipient Cost-Share: $226,000;
• Southwest Research Institute—Investigating a novel supercritical CO2 power cycle utilizing pressurized oxy-combustion in conjunction with cryogenic compression. DOE Investment: $700,000, Recipient Cost-Share: $175,000;
• Unity Power Alliance—Evaluating the flameless combustion technology developed by ITEA under pressurized oxy-combustion conditions. DOE Investment: $1 million, Recipient Cost-Share: $391,000;
• University of Kentucky Research Foundation—Studying a heat-integrated, coal-based combined cycle for power generation using a pressurized chemical looping combustor. DOE Investment: $599,000, Recipient Cost-Share: $156,000; and
• Washington University in St. Louis—Probing the technical feasibility and improved economics of a unique pressurized system which incorporates a fuel-staged combustion approach. DOE Investment: $854,000, Recipient Cost-Share: $209,000.