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Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Shortly before 7:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on October 1, the U.S. Power Industry officially entered the carbon-sequestration era. That's when officials from American Electric Power (NYSE:AEP) (Columbus, Ohio) and Alstom Power, a unit of Alstom SA (EPA:ALO) (Levallois-Perret, France), pushed a button to begin sequestering carbon-dioxide emissions from AEP's Mountaineer Power Station in New Haven, West Virginia.
"We were in 'catch and release' mode during September," AEP spokesperson Melissa McHenry told Industrial Info. "We were capturing, but not sequestering carbon dioxide emissions that month. But on October 1, we started putting emissions in the ground." The carbon dioxide is being injected into two saline formations located more than a mile underneath the power plant.
Click on image for a photograph of the facility.
The Mountaineer project is the "first-of-its-kind integration of a coal-fired generator with carbon capture and storage [CCS] technology," Gary Spitznogle, AEP's manager of IGCC and CCS engineering, told Industrial Info.
The 20-megawatt (MW) project seeks to validate Alstom's post-combustion chilled-ammonia carbon-capture process. The project is expected to capture and sequester about 100,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually, a small fraction of the power plant's estimated annual CO2 emissions of 8.5 million metric tons. For more information on the Mountaineer CCS project, see June 8, 2009, article - Mountaineer CCS Project On Time and On Budget for October Start-Up. Engineering and permitting for the facility began in October 2007, and construction started in the second quarter of 2008.
"The most significant challenge we faced was the scale-up of equipment in a very rapid schedule without the full benefit of the We Energies Pleasant Prairie carbon capture pilot project, which is still operating," Alstom Vice President of Power Technologies for Government Affairs Bob Hilton told Industrial Info. He added that the Mountaineer project is "the most advanced" CCS project of its type in the world.
"There were numerous engineering challenges encountered along the way, as would be expected with a first-of-a-kind endeavor, but nothing too substantial," Spitznogle said in an interview. "The hardware installation progressed largely as planned. Construction of the wells revealed to AEP that geology projects are inherently more challenging and bring greater uncertainty than we are accustomed to with typical engineering projects."
Spitznogle said he does not expect problems with monitoring the CO2 plume underground. "In general, plume migration is not one of the more uncertain characteristics of the system. Numerical models have been developed to predict the plume behavior. The geologic formations are quite flat and without substantial dip. Significant migration is not a high risk."
The Mountaineer validation project, while important in itself, is also an important milestone to commercially prove Alstom's chilled-ammonia carbon-capture process. The next step for the technology could also take place at the Mountaineer site: In late August, AEP applied for a $334 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to build a 235-MW commercial-scale CCS project at Mountaineer. The project, which would cost nearly $700 million to design and construct, would capture and sequester up to 1.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. The commercial project would have an in-service date of 2015. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is expected to make a decision next month about funding for the project, under Round 3 of the department's Clean Coal Power Initiative.
"AEP will begin work on the 235-MW chilled-ammonia project once we have meaningful analysis of the data collected from the 20-MW slipstream [validation] project and after we have identified the means with which to fund the project," Spitznogle told Industrial Info. "Our current plan is to build the 235-MW CCS system at the Mountaineer plant," but whether the commercial plant gets built at all may depend on the DOE's funding decision.
A small army of news reporters have visited the Mountaineer site and received briefings on the project during 2009. Reporters from The New York Times, the BBC, The Times (of London), German newspaper Die Zeit, National Public Radio, the Associated Press, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation all have toured the facility, according to AEP spokesperson McHenry. Numerous other media outlets, including The Washington Post, BusinessWeek, Popular Mechanics, Science, U.S. News and World Report, and Fortune, as well as Industrial Info, also have published stories on the project.
The broad media interest is understandable: The Mountaineer validation project carries significant implications for the electric utility industry, coal companies, and U.S. consumers. Coal-fired power plants generate about 50% of the electricity used in the U.S. each year, but the fuel also emits significant amounts of carbon dioxide. As evidence has mounted that burning fossil fuels is connected to an increase in atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, utilities and coal companies have stepped up their search for cost-effective ways to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion. It may not be too much to suggest that the future of coal is riding on the results of the Mountaineer CCS validation project.
Project officials have been closed-mouthed about the total costs of the Mountaineer validation project as well the parasitic load that capturing and sequestering the carbon dioxide imposes on the generating station. AEP is contributing about $73 million to the Mountaineer validation project. Additional funding is being provided by Alstom and German utility RWE AG (OTC:RWEOY) (Essen, Germany).
Parasitic load--the electricity used to capture, chill, compress, and sequester the carbon dioxide--is a critical factor for CCS technology. Electricity consumed by the process is electricity that cannot be sold to consumers or other utilities. Various news media reports have pegged the chilled-ammonia process' parasitic load at about 15%, meaning that 15% of Mountaineer's electricity output is used to operate the CCS facility. In interviews with Industrial Info, Alstom and AEP officials have repeatedly refused to confirm or deny those estimates, noting that optimizing the efficiency of the facility was not one of the goals of the validation project.
The other leading CCS technology, which uses amines to react with and capture carbon dioxide from a power plant's flue-gas emissions stream, has a significantly higher parasitic load, in the range of 25% to 35%. Spitznogle did tell Industrial Info that AEP chose Alstom's chilled-ammonia process because of the technology's lower parasitic load than various amine-based processes.
Zachry Engineering, a unit of Zachry (San Antonio, Texas), performed plant engineering work at the Mountaineer validation project, while APComPower Incorporated (Windsor, Connecticut), a unit of Alstom, performed mechanical and structural steel work. Brown Engineering Company (Reading, Pennsylvania) performed foundation work. Battelle (Columbus, Ohio) performed engineering, procurement, and construction services for the project's CO2-storage system, while Enerteq Engineering Company (Stafford, Texas) provided engineering and procurement services for the CO2-transport system.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy related markets. For more than 26 years, Industrial Info has provided plant and project opportunity databases, market forecasts, high resolution maps, and daily industry news.
"We were in 'catch and release' mode during September," AEP spokesperson Melissa McHenry told Industrial Info. "We were capturing, but not sequestering carbon dioxide emissions that month. But on October 1, we started putting emissions in the ground." The carbon dioxide is being injected into two saline formations located more than a mile underneath the power plant.
Click on image for a photograph of the facility. The Mountaineer project is the "first-of-its-kind integration of a coal-fired generator with carbon capture and storage [CCS] technology," Gary Spitznogle, AEP's manager of IGCC and CCS engineering, told Industrial Info.
The 20-megawatt (MW) project seeks to validate Alstom's post-combustion chilled-ammonia carbon-capture process. The project is expected to capture and sequester about 100,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually, a small fraction of the power plant's estimated annual CO2 emissions of 8.5 million metric tons. For more information on the Mountaineer CCS project, see June 8, 2009, article - Mountaineer CCS Project On Time and On Budget for October Start-Up. Engineering and permitting for the facility began in October 2007, and construction started in the second quarter of 2008.
"The most significant challenge we faced was the scale-up of equipment in a very rapid schedule without the full benefit of the We Energies Pleasant Prairie carbon capture pilot project, which is still operating," Alstom Vice President of Power Technologies for Government Affairs Bob Hilton told Industrial Info. He added that the Mountaineer project is "the most advanced" CCS project of its type in the world.
"There were numerous engineering challenges encountered along the way, as would be expected with a first-of-a-kind endeavor, but nothing too substantial," Spitznogle said in an interview. "The hardware installation progressed largely as planned. Construction of the wells revealed to AEP that geology projects are inherently more challenging and bring greater uncertainty than we are accustomed to with typical engineering projects."
Spitznogle said he does not expect problems with monitoring the CO2 plume underground. "In general, plume migration is not one of the more uncertain characteristics of the system. Numerical models have been developed to predict the plume behavior. The geologic formations are quite flat and without substantial dip. Significant migration is not a high risk."
The Mountaineer validation project, while important in itself, is also an important milestone to commercially prove Alstom's chilled-ammonia carbon-capture process. The next step for the technology could also take place at the Mountaineer site: In late August, AEP applied for a $334 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to build a 235-MW commercial-scale CCS project at Mountaineer. The project, which would cost nearly $700 million to design and construct, would capture and sequester up to 1.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. The commercial project would have an in-service date of 2015. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is expected to make a decision next month about funding for the project, under Round 3 of the department's Clean Coal Power Initiative.
"AEP will begin work on the 235-MW chilled-ammonia project once we have meaningful analysis of the data collected from the 20-MW slipstream [validation] project and after we have identified the means with which to fund the project," Spitznogle told Industrial Info. "Our current plan is to build the 235-MW CCS system at the Mountaineer plant," but whether the commercial plant gets built at all may depend on the DOE's funding decision.
A small army of news reporters have visited the Mountaineer site and received briefings on the project during 2009. Reporters from The New York Times, the BBC, The Times (of London), German newspaper Die Zeit, National Public Radio, the Associated Press, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation all have toured the facility, according to AEP spokesperson McHenry. Numerous other media outlets, including The Washington Post, BusinessWeek, Popular Mechanics, Science, U.S. News and World Report, and Fortune, as well as Industrial Info, also have published stories on the project.
The broad media interest is understandable: The Mountaineer validation project carries significant implications for the electric utility industry, coal companies, and U.S. consumers. Coal-fired power plants generate about 50% of the electricity used in the U.S. each year, but the fuel also emits significant amounts of carbon dioxide. As evidence has mounted that burning fossil fuels is connected to an increase in atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, utilities and coal companies have stepped up their search for cost-effective ways to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion. It may not be too much to suggest that the future of coal is riding on the results of the Mountaineer CCS validation project.
Project officials have been closed-mouthed about the total costs of the Mountaineer validation project as well the parasitic load that capturing and sequestering the carbon dioxide imposes on the generating station. AEP is contributing about $73 million to the Mountaineer validation project. Additional funding is being provided by Alstom and German utility RWE AG (OTC:RWEOY) (Essen, Germany).
Parasitic load--the electricity used to capture, chill, compress, and sequester the carbon dioxide--is a critical factor for CCS technology. Electricity consumed by the process is electricity that cannot be sold to consumers or other utilities. Various news media reports have pegged the chilled-ammonia process' parasitic load at about 15%, meaning that 15% of Mountaineer's electricity output is used to operate the CCS facility. In interviews with Industrial Info, Alstom and AEP officials have repeatedly refused to confirm or deny those estimates, noting that optimizing the efficiency of the facility was not one of the goals of the validation project.
The other leading CCS technology, which uses amines to react with and capture carbon dioxide from a power plant's flue-gas emissions stream, has a significantly higher parasitic load, in the range of 25% to 35%. Spitznogle did tell Industrial Info that AEP chose Alstom's chilled-ammonia process because of the technology's lower parasitic load than various amine-based processes.
Zachry Engineering, a unit of Zachry (San Antonio, Texas), performed plant engineering work at the Mountaineer validation project, while APComPower Incorporated (Windsor, Connecticut), a unit of Alstom, performed mechanical and structural steel work. Brown Engineering Company (Reading, Pennsylvania) performed foundation work. Battelle (Columbus, Ohio) performed engineering, procurement, and construction services for the project's CO2-storage system, while Enerteq Engineering Company (Stafford, Texas) provided engineering and procurement services for the CO2-transport system.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy related markets. For more than 26 years, Industrial Info has provided plant and project opportunity databases, market forecasts, high resolution maps, and daily industry news.
