Transformational oxy-combustion technology holds promise for more efficient and cheaper carbon capture, utilization, and storage of coal-fired plant emissions

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As part of President Obama’s all-of-the-above approach to American energy, the Energy Department announced today the selection of a Southwest Research Institute project in San Antonio, Texas to help advance the development of transformational oxy-combustion technologies capable of high-efficiency, low-cost carbon dioxide capture from coal-fired power plants. The selection is one of eight Energy Department investments totaling approximately $7 million – leveraged with recipient cost-share to support approximately $9.4 million in total projects – to support the development and deployment of Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) by focusing on further improving the efficiency and reducing the costs associated with carbon capture.

“Advancing the development of clean coal technologies is an important part of President Obama’s strategy to develop every source of American energy,” said U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu. “These projects will build on the important progress made by this Administration in promoting innovative technologies that help make coal-fired energy cleaner and more cost-competitive. America’s leadership in developing new Carbon, Capture, Utilization and Storage technologies is helping to ensure the United States continues to lead the world in this growing global market.”

The Energy Department is leveraging its cutting-edge research to show that not only can Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) technology help industry make fossil energy use cleaner, safer and more sustainable, it also shows promise as a method to extract more, hard-to-access and presently untapped American fossil energy resources like oil and natural gas. By utilizing the captured carbon emissions to recover added oil and natural gas resources, CCUS provides an additional strong business and market case for companies or organizations looking to pursue the environmental benefits of CCS.

As a promising near-term technology, oxy-combustion applied at facilities using pulverized coal-fired boilers for power or industrial applications, will support CCUS efforts and result in ultra-low emissions. The oxy-combustion process replaces the air used for combustion with a mixture of oxygen and recycled plant emissions, or “flue gas,” and/or water for temperature control. The remainder of the flue gas that is not recirculated is rich in carbon dioxide and water vapor - and is easily separated - producing a stream of carbon dioxide ready for utilization or sequestration.

With a $700,000 Energy Department investment and $175,000 in cost-share, the Southwest Research Institute project will investigate a novel supercritical CO₂ power cycle utilizing pressurized oxy-combustion in conjunction with cryogenic compression. This power cycle leverages developments in pressurized oxy-combustion technology, a cryogenic CO₂ compression system and recent developments in supercritical power cycles to achieve high net cycle efficiencies while producing a captive CO₂ stream at pipeline pressures without requiring additional compression of the CO₂.

The selections announced today represent the first phase of a two-phase effort to evaluate and develop advanced oxy-combustion projects that yield cost-competitive options for CCUS. These projects will aim to achieve at least 90 percent carbon dioxide removal while delivering carbon dioxide at a capture cost of less than $25 per ton. The Phase 1 projects will focus on an engineering and economic analysis of the technologies while identifying the Phase 2 research and development needs to bring the technology closer to commercialization. The selection of Phase 2 projects will occur next year based upon Phase 1 results.

These awards are part of a more than $5 billion investment strategy by the Obama Administration in clean coal technologies and R&D. This strategy, which has attracted over $10 billion in additional private capital investment, is designed to accelerate commercial deployment of clean coal technologies – particularly CCS – and to position the United States as a leader in the global clean energy race. Thanks in part to this strategy, the United States is currently leading the world in CCS technologies.

The selected projects, each lasting one year, will be managed by the Energy Department’s National Energy Technology Laboratory.