According to the DOE, 19 projects were selected, valued at approximately $35.8m over four years, with $27.6m DOE funding and $8.2m of non-Federal cost sharing. The work would be managed by the Office of Fossil Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory.
The funding includes $2m for Woodlands, Texas-based Fusion Petroleum Technologies, $1.6m for Columbia University, $2m for Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Planetary Emissions Management, and approximately $2m for Schlumberger’s (SLB.N) Carbon Services.
In the US, around half of the electricity requirements are provided by coal-fired power plants, which accounts for approximately 80% of carbon emissions from domestic power generation.
Environmental activists, Governments and coal companies are seeking for breakthrough technologies which would help in capturing, transporting and storing the carbon underground.
The US government plans to invest billions on researching and commercializing CCS. It has resurrected a project called FutureGen to construct a carbon capture and storage plant. The project would be co-developed by a consortium made up of coal, metal and power generation companies.
Previously during July 2009, the DOE approved to start the preliminary design of the project in Mattoon, Ill. The project is estimated to cost around $2.4 billion, of which $1 billion would be provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Southern Co, a coal power producer, through Bloomberg has reported that it would apply for matching funds under the government’s Clean Coal Power Initiative. American Electric Power is seeking for $334m.
