The company’s application would seek $334m, which is approximately half of the estimated cost of installing the system. The system would use a chilled ammonia process to capture around 90% of the carbon dioxide from 235MW of the plant’s 1,300MW of capacity. The carbon that is captured, which is approximately 1.5 million metric tons per year, would be treated and compressed, then injected into suitable geologic formations for permanent storage approximately 1.5 miles below the surface. According to the company’s application for funding, the system is expected to commence commercial operation in 2015.
Michael G. Morris, chairman, president and chief executive officer of AEP, said: “Commercialization of carbon capture and storage technology is an essential component in a successful climate strategy for this nation, which relies on coal-fired generation for about half of its electricity supply. First-movers like AEP who push the commercialization of technology will face higher costs than those who wait for others to act, costs that would be borne by our customers. It’s an appropriate use of federal stimulus funds to spur the advancement of this technology and to offset the financial penalty facing our customers and our company for taking the initiative.”
The company, for this commercial-scale project, is forming a technical advisory committee that includes recognized experts in the field of geologic carbon dioxide storage. This group would include participants from Schlumberger, Battelle Memorial Institute, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The Ohio State University, West Virginia University, The University of Texas, Ohio Geological Survey, CONSOL Energy, and the West Virginia Department of Commerce Division of Energy. Schlumberger would directly work with AEP to design and deploy the carbon dioxide storage system at Mountaineer.
AEP and Alstom would commence operating a smaller-scale validation of the technology in September at the Mountaineer plant. That system would capture around 90% of the carbon dioxide from a slipstream of flue gas equivalent to 20MW of generating capacity. The captured carbon dioxide, which is approximately 100,000 tons a year, would be compressed and injected into suitable geologic formations for permanent storage approximately 1.5 miles below the surface. For the validation project, no federal funds are being used.
