Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
10/17/2014
A new technology which can produce low-cost electricity from natural gas-fired plants with no atmospheric emissions, according to its North Carolina-based developers, NET Power and affiliate 8 Rivers Capital, will be demonstrated in a 50MWt natural gas plant located in Texas. The $140 million plant will be funded with a combination of cash and in-kind contributions from Exelon Corporation and CB&I, the release says. Toshiba Corporation will also participate in the project, manufacturing a supercritical CO2 turbine for the plant. “This program highlights the private sector’s unique ability to develop breakthrough technologies without having to settle for anything less than compelling economics … We are extremely excited to move forward on this important power plant with the outstanding team of Exelon, CB&I, Toshiba and 8 Rivers Capital,” said NET Power CEO Bill Brown in the release.
According to an Exelon release this week, design activities have been ongoing since 2010 and operations, maintenance and development arrangements have been completed. Contracts for plant engineering, procurement and construction are in place and commissioning is expected to begin in 2016 and be completed in 2017 according to the release. Exelon will operate and maintain the plant. Further, early work is also progressing on a 295MWe commercial-scale NET Power plant.
The technology being demonstrated at the plant is NET Power’s thermodynamic cycle system, the Allam Cycle, which uses CO2 as a working fluid in the power generation process. According to a NET Power fact sheet, “the Allam Cycle uses a high-pressure, highly recuperative, oxyfuel, supercritical CO2 cycle that makes carbon capture part of the core power generation process, rather than an afterthought. The result is high-efficiency power generation that inherently produces a pipeline-quality CO2 byproduct at no cost to the system’s performance.” In this system, the high pressured CO2 stream is used as the primary means of producing power, according to the fact sheet. The Allam Cycle essentially produces carbon capture-ready CO2 as a function of plant’s basic operations and in doing so eliminates the need to install additional carbon capture technology, the fact sheet says. Further, the fact sheet notes that a NET Power plant would have a small footprint and would use less water than traditional fossil fuel plants because the Allam Cycle eliminates the need for steam.
