Unhealthy Status of Carbon Capture Programs conveyed in the Hot Topic Hour on May 24, 2012

The conclusion reached by speakers at the McIlvaine Hot Topic Hour yesterday is that coal-fired power with carbon capture is not moving forward. Programs are being drastically cut back or cancelled. However, there is some technical progress.

Dennis (Denny) McDonald P.E., Manager/Functional Technology and Steve Moorman, Manager, Business Development - Advanced Technologies at Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group, discussed the status of B&W's carbon capture programs and technologies and their perspective on the factors that have greatly slowed the global momentum toward CCS. The price of natural gas is one factor but regulations and potential regulations are an equal deterrent. Oxycombustion can capture up to 98 percent of the CO₂, but oil companies are indicating a willingness to pay less than $40/ton for CO₂ while the cost is close to $60/ton.

Dr. Neeraj Gupta, Senior Research Leader for Energy Systems at Battelle Memorial Institute, presented a “CO₂ Utilization and Storage Technology Update.”  Commercial readiness of CCUS technologies to meet the regulatory constraints depends on our ability to expand research on geologic storage and utilization, exploration for safe and effective subsurface storage, appropriate policy and financial framework.  Lessons have been learned from a number of field-testing projects, especially in the Midwestern USA, a region with strong dependence on coal. Geologic storage and EOR are two completely different ways to use CO₂.  New rules on storage make it much more expensive than just injecting it into an oil field. One involves permanent storage and the other involves temporary storage for the purpose of oil extraction. CO₂ is one fracking fluid option for shale gas recovery, but this use would not result in permanent storage.

Jeffrey (Jeff) Price, Managing Partner at Bluewave Resources, LLC, provided perspective on the many uses of CO₂. These include 3,500 miles of pipeline in the U.S. which is primarily moving natural CO₂ to sites for EOR. There are uses in greenhouses, ethanol, and various industrial processes. But these are all small. Jeffrey emphasized the lack of scale as a major impediment to using the technology in large power plants.

The Bios, Abstracts and Photos information is linked below.

BIOS, ABSTRACTS, PHOTOS - MAY 24, 2012.htm