Power Engineering - AEP to install carbon capture on two existing power plants

15 March 2007 -- American Electric Power (AEP) will install carbon capture on two coal-fired power plants, the first commercial use of technologies to significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions from existing plants.

The first project is expected to complete its product validation phase in 2008 and begin commercial operation in 2011.

"With Congress expected to take action on greenhouse gas issues in climate legislation, it's time to advance this technology for commercial use," said Michael Morris, AEP chairman, president and CEO. "And we will continue working with Congress as it crafts climate policy. It is important that the U.S. climate policy be well thought out, establish reasonable targets and timetables, and include mechanisms to prevent trade imbalances that would damage the U.S. economy."

AEP has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Alstom for post-combustion carbon capture technology using Alstom's chilled ammonia process. (For more on the technology, see this article from the February 2007 issue of Power Engineering magazine's e-newsletter.) The technology, which is being piloted this summer by Alstom on a 5-MW slipstream from a plant in Wisconsin, will first be installed on AEP's 1,300-MW Mountaineer Plant in New Haven, W.Va., as a 30-MW product validation in mid-2008 where up to 100,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) will be captured per year. The captured CO₂ will be designated for geological storage in deep saline aquifers at the site. Battelle Memorial Institute will serve as the consultant for AEP on geological storage.

Following the completion of product validation at Mountaineer, AEP will install Alstom's system on one of the 450-MWe coal-fired units at its Northeastern Station in Oologah, Okla. Plans are for the commercial-scale system to be operational at Northeastern Station in late 2011. It is expected to capture about 1.5 million metric tons of CO₂ a year. The CO₂ captured at Northeastern Station will be used for enhanced oil recovery.

Alstom's system captures CO₂ by isolating the gas from the power plant's other flue gases and can significantly increase the efficiency of the CO₂ capture process. The system chills the flue gas, recovering large quantities of water for recycle, and then utilizes a CO₂ absorber in a similar way to absorbers used in systems that reduce sulfur dioxide emissions. The remaining low concentration of ammonia in the clean flue gas is captured by cold-water wash and returned to the absorber. The CO₂ is compressed for enhanced oil recovery or storage.

AEP has also signed an MOU with The Babcock & Wilcox Company (B&W) for a feasibility study of oxy-coal combustion technology. B&W, a subsidiary of McDermott International, Inc., will complete a pilot demonstration of the technology this summer at its 30-MW Clean Environment Development Facility in Alliance, Ohio.

Following this demonstration, AEP and B&W will conduct a retrofit feasibility study that will include selection of an existing AEP plant site for commercial-scale installation of the technology and cost estimates to complete that work. Once the study is completed, detailed design engineering and construction estimates to retrofit an existing AEP plant for commercial-scale CO₂ capture will begin. At the commercial scale, the captured CO₂ will likely be stored in deep geologic formations. The oxy-coal combustion technology is expected to be in service on an AEP plant in the 2012-2015 time frame.

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