Lexington, KY – After years of study, Kentucky Utilities’ E.W. Brown Generating Station near Harrodsburg is looking to employ the use of carbon capture technology, sequestering the carbon released in the air at other plants.
With the assistance of technology developed the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER), the $19.5 million project with the is made possible through a $14.5 million competitive financial assistance award from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory and cost-share funding from UK, the Kentucky Department of Energy Development and Independence, the Carbon Management Research Group (CMRG) utility members and project team members including the Electric Power Research Institute and Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems America.
The CMRG, comprised of government agencies, electric utilities and research organizations, seeks cost-effective technologies to reduce and manage carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants. Current utility members include LG&E and KU Energy, Duke Energy and Kentucky Power.
Construction of the two megawatt thermal post-combustion carbon dioxide capture pilot system is expected to be complete this fall, shortly followed by the testing period. Key discoveries will be determined after testing is finished in mid-2016.
The focus of this pilot system will serve to demonstrate improvements in the integration of carbon capture technology at an existing power plant, produce key discoveries with the goal of developing a safer, more efficient process, and test the feasibility of ideas and technologies for the integration of commercial-scale carbon capture systems, a release from CAER stated.
“This project is the next phase in a partnership between LG&E and KU and the University of Kentucky that began back in 2006, when our company committed $1.5 million to CAER for research into the reduction of greenhouse gases,” said LG&E and KU Energy Chairman, CEO and President Victor Staffieri. “In 2006, there were no regulations on carbon emissions, but we recognized the importance of this research for our company and our commonwealth. That’s why we continue to invest in these types of projects, which explore ways to make a difference for both our industry and future generations.”
According to the joint release from CAER and LG&E and KU, the system will operate by using a few sampling ports to redirect a portion of the flue gas just before the gas enters the stack. From the sampling port, the flue gas will move into modules where its interaction with a liquid solvent will extract CO2 from the flue gas. The resulting flue gas, now carrying less than 2 percent CO2, exits the absorber and returns to the stack. The liquid solvent carrying the removed CO2 is put through a two-stage process that boils off the carbon to produce a concentrated stream of CO2. The solvent is recycled to the absorber to process more flue gas. In commercial applications, the concentrated CO2 stream would then be compressed and piped for utilization or storage. In this “catch and release” research project, however, UK will perform detailed analyses of each process, then reintroduce the concentrated CO2 stream into the flue gas.