Tamar Hallerman and Farris Willingham
GHG Monitor
06/22/12
GE will collaborate with technology developer Sargas AS to build one of the world’s first natural gas-fired power plants with an integrated carbon capture component for enhanced oil recovery operations, the companies announced this week. GE said it is entering into a new partnership with the Norway-based Sargas to move forward on a project that will combine a GE LMS100 gas turbine with Sargas’ carbon capture technology to produce 250 MW of electricity and capture industrial-scale levels CO2 for EOR operations, GE said.
The company said that the combination of technologies will allow for the capture of CO2 at a high efficiency with low parasitic load. Darryl Wilson, president and CEO of aeroderivative gas turbines for GE Power & Water, said that the efficiency of the company’s LMS100 turbine makes it an “optimal solution” for a pressurized carbon capture plant. “The three-shaft system architecture of the LMS100 enables adaptability for use in a carbon capture EOR application,” Wilson said in a company statement. “The LMS100 provides a highly efficient production of pressurized flue gas that empowers Sargas technology.” Sargas’ pressurized capture technology needs less energy to capture CO2 emissions from flue gas because it captures the chemical at pressure, which requires lower capital investment costs and can be built on existing systems, the company said. Sargas Chief Executive Henrik Fleischer said the project could “revolutionize” the industry by providing for CO2 capture “in both a flexible and affordable way.”
