Lexington, KY - A University of Kentucky Research Foundation project developing technologies capable of high-efficiency, low-cost carbon dioxide capture from coal-fired power plants has received funding from the Department of Energy.
With a $599,000 Energy Department investment and $156,000 in cost-share, the project will investigate a system to produce high-temperature flue gas for electricity generation through a gas-turbine and a heat recovery unit combined with a conventional steam cycle. The cost effectiveness and efficiency of the process using iron-based oxygen carriers will be investigated.
The selection of the UK research project is one of eight Energy Department investments supporting the development and deployment of Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) by focusing on further improving the efficiency and reducing the costs associated with carbon capture.
The selections represent the first phase of a two-phase effort to evaluate and develop advanced oxy-combustion projects that yield cost-competitive options for CCUS. These projects will aim to achieve at least 90 percent carbon dioxide removal while delivering carbon dioxide at a capture cost of less than $25 per ton.
The oxy-combustion process replaces the air used for combustion with a mixture of oxygen and recycled plant emissions, or “flue gas,” and/or water for temperature control. The remainder of the flue gas that is not recirculated is rich in carbon dioxide and water vapor - and is easily separated - producing a stream of carbon dioxide ready for utilization or sequestration.
The Phase 1 projects will focus on an engineering and economic analysis of the technologies while identifying the Phase 2 research and development needs to bring the technology closer to commercialization.
The selection of Phase 2 projects will occur next year based upon Phase 1 results.
In a statement, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said his department is leveraging cutting-edge research to show that Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) technology can help industry make fossil energy use cleaner, safer and more sustainable. Chu said the technology also shows promise as a method to extract more, hard-to-access and presently untapped American fossil energy resources like oil and natural gas.