Hot off the press - here's the 27th issue of the Carbon Corner! We hope today's read is informative!

FEED Study to Start for Kentucky Power Plant

A front-end engineering design (FEED) study was announced for a project that will deploy carbon capture technology at a Kentucky natural gas combined cycle power plant. The project, located at Kentucky Utility's Cane Run Generating Station (Cane Run) in Louisville, received a $5.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The project's research, done by EPRI and the University of Kentucky, has focused on process intensification, two-stage solvent regeneration, heat integration, and advanced solvent development. Bechtel and the University of Michigan will lead efforts of engineering, construction, and management for the project.

If the study is successful, the carbon capture approach could lower operating expenditures. Specifically, the cost of electricity could reduce by 47 percent, going from a standard $67/tonne of CO2 to $35/tonne.

This study is expected to continue through mid-2024 and eventually lay the groundwork for a full-size sequestration pilot at Cane Run.

United Airlines Furthers their Support in the Carbon Capture Movement

United Airlines announced its recent investment in a carbon capture project called Svante. The company's $5 million investment will support Svante's commercial-sized filter manufacturing plant in Vancouver. Svante's technology uses structured absorbent beds to capture CO2 emissions from industrial sites and the atmosphere. The emissions are then concentrated and used to produce sustainable aviation fuel or are sequestered underground.

This is only one project of many that United has supported. In June, the airline signed an agreement to purchase over 300 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel from Dimensional Energy, a company dedicated to converting CO2 and hydrogen electrolyzed from water into syngas feedstock. They also made a multimillion-dollar investment into 1Point5, which plans to build the first U.S. industrial-sized DAC plant.

An Oceanic Approach to Carbon Capture and Storage

Researchers from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania have developed a new way to capture carbon dioxide emissions from the air and store them in the ocean. The approach uses a copper-containing polymeric filter called DeCarbonHIX to convert captured CO2 into sodium bicarbonate by passing seawater into the filter. The dissolved sodium bicarbonate is then released harmlessly into the ocean.

It is believed that the process is helpful to the environment. Dumping bicarbonate into the ocean restores the pH levels initially reduced by the elevated levels of CO2 in the atmosphere.

DeCarbonHIX demonstrated a three hundred percent increase in carbon capture capabilities compared with existing DAC technologies. This approach has garnered attention from international media outlets and professional organizations.

SenGupta, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and civil and environmental engineering in Lehigh’s P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science, envisions using this method at a larger scale, saying, “I believe we have a responsibility to build direct air capture technology in a way that it can be implemented by people and countries around the world. Anyone who can operate a cell phone should be able to operate this process. This is not technology for making money. It’s for saving the world.”

NET Power LLC Turns CO2 Problem into Solution for Utility-Scale Natural Gas Plants

Rice Investment Group acquired NET Power LLC in December for $1.46 billion. Since then, the company has decided to launch a front-end engineering and design study for its first West Texas commercial power plant. This endeavor follows NET Power's successful CO2 demonstration plant in La Porte, southeast of Houston, which was synchronized to the Texas electric grid in late 2021.

NET Power's technology works by combusting natural gas and pure oxygen to produce CO2 and water. The CO2 is then used to spin a turboexpander, producing power. The turboexpander exhaust cools, and water and byproducts are removed so that the CO2 can be captured and sequestered or sold. Annually, each utility plant using this process produces around 820,000 tonnes of CO2 ready for transportation or storage.

Daniel Rice, CEO of Rice Investment Group, said, "Why that one is so important is that it will be the first of the 500 utility-scale plants that we'll end up deploying over the next whoever-knows-how-many years...but it will be that standardized design and spec… It's a smaller footprint than traditional combined-cycle plants, even without carbon capture. It's a much more efficient way to generate power."

Allen Police Jury expresses support for carbon dioxide sequestration site

Occidental Petroleum has plans to develop CO2 sequestration wells and store captured carbon in underground facilities on a 27,000-acre plot of land in Allen Parish, Louisiana. The land is currently leased by Hancock Forest Management, making it private property. Due to the status of the land, the parish will not receive any revenue.

Parish police jurors have been supporting and asking that state legislators amend the bill to allow the parish government to receive financial benefits from the project.

Police Juror H. Creig Vizena said, “I think this would be a great thing for the parish as long as it is safe for the people and we can get some money out of it….they are not talking about pocket change. That much money, especially out there where they want to put it in Ward 4 we are the poorest. At one time we were the seventh highest ad valorem taxed ward in the state. Any money at all would help us greatly because most of our people are under homestead exemption and don’t pay any ad valorem taxes. We are in a poor parish. It would make some money for Ward 4, the parish, tax assessor, School Board…Everybody would be able to benefit.”

Schaper Energy Consulting is a professional engineering firm offering carbon strategy services to CCS site developers. Check out some examples of our projects here: https://schaperintl.com/carbon-strategies/

If you have questions or comments, please contact us at info@schaperintl.com.

We hope you enjoyed reading this week and hope to see you back next week for more!

qaUnsubscribe