The Mountaineer carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) demonstration project, which began capturing CO2 on September 1 and storing it on October 2, is designed to capture at least 100,000 metric tonnes of CO2 annually.
Michael Morris, chairman, president and CEO of AEP, said: “Commercialization of carbon capture and storage technology is an essential part of a successful strategy to address climate change, not only for the US, which relies on coal-fired generation for about half of its electricity supply, but also for coal-dependent nations around the world.
“Coal is a low-cost, abundant fuel source, but its use is a significant source of carbon dioxide emissions. We are pleased to be working with Alstom and our other partners on a project that plays a significant role in the advancement of a technology that will allow us to continue to depend on coal for electricity generation with reduced environmental impact.”
AEP’s Mountaineer plant is a 1,300MW electrical (MWe) coal-fired unit that was retrofitted earlier this year with Alstom’s patented chilled ammonia CO2 capture technology on a 20MWe portion, or slipstream, of the plant’s exhaust flue gas.
The slipstream of flue gas is chilled and combined with a solution of ammonium carbonate, which absorbs the CO2 to create ammonium bicarbonate. The ammonium bicarbonate solution is then pressurized and heated in a separate process to produce a high-purity stream of CO2. The CO2 will be compressed and piped for storage into deep geologic formations, roughly 1.5 miles beneath the plant surface. Approximately 90% of the CO2 from the 20MWe slipstream will be captured and permanently stored.
AEP has applied for federal stimulus funding to scale up the Alstom chilled ammonia technology to 235MWe at Mountaineer Plant. The proposed commercial-scale demonstration will capture and geologically store approximately 1.5 million metric tonnes of CO2 per year.
