Carbon | EnergyNorthwest.com

DOE’s First Advanced Fossil Fuel Loan Guarantee Commitment Awarded to Methanol Plant with Carbon Capture

December 25, 2016

The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) first loan guarantee under an $ 8 billion solicitation for advanced fossil energy projects may go to a methanol production facility in Lake Charles, La., that will employ carbon capture technology for enhanced oil recovery.

The DOE said in a statement on December 21 that it offered a conditional commitment to guarantee loans of up to $ 2 billion to help build the facility. If built, the facility will be the world’s first methanol production facility to use carbon capture technology. It would also be the first facility in the U.S. to derive methanol from petroleum coke (petcoke), which is a byproduct of oil refining.

The proposed plant will produce methanol, hydrogen, and other industrial gases and chemical products using petcoke as a feedstock. It proposes to capture 77% of carbon dioxide from the petcoke gasification plant. The gas will then be compressed and transported to oilfields in Texas for enhanced oil recovery.

The DOE’s solicitation issued in December 2013 under Title XVII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 sought applications for loan guarantees to finance U.S.…

New Technology Offers Hope for Cost-Effective Carbon Capture and Storage Systems

October 13, 2016

| No Comments

| Industry News

Academics at the University of Sheffield—a public research university in the UK—have begun two new carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects, searching for cheaper methods of capturing carbon dioxide (CO₂) from fossil-fueled power plants.

The work is being funded by the European Commission’s (EC’s) Horizon 2020 Low Carbon Energy program.

Solvents Could Be Game-Changing

The “ROLINCAP” project received €3.2 million to explore how new chemical solvents could be used in a “rotating packed bed” process, which is designed to accelerate chemical reactions. The method may allow CO₂ to be captured more efficiently, with smaller equipment than was previously required.

“Our European consortium will work with experts from South Korea to develop technologies for post-combustion carbon capture and storage. We will explore new solvents and new techniques for process intensification, which I hope will lead to cheaper, more efficient carbon capture,” said Meihong Wang, Professor of Energy Systems in the Department for Chemical and Biological Engineering.

Carbon Clean Solutions Ltd.…

District Energy Systems Improve Efficiency and Reduce Carbon Emissions

June 27, 2016

| No Comments

| Industry News

Although it’s not widely publicized, a majority of the energy used to generate electricity is wasted in the form of heat discharged to the environment. For better or worse, that’s just the way a typical thermal power plant works.

Fuel, such as coal, biomass, natural gas, or uranium (in the case of nuclear plants), is used to heat water, producing high-temperature and high-pressure steam. The steam is admitted into a turbine, which spins a generator to produce electricity. However, not all of the energy stored in the steam is converted to useful work through the process.

In order for the cycle to continue, the steam exhausted from the turbine must be returned to its liquid form inside a condenser. In a fairly standard arrangement, the condenser is cooled by river, lake, or ocean water. The cooling water from the condenser is often simply released back to its source, and with it, the energy that was transferred inside the condenser.

Waste Not, Want Not

The average U.S.…