US DOE backs CCUS at Alabama power plant
SUMMARY
A multi-partner team will study the integration of CCUS into Southern Energy’s James M. Barry power plant. [Image: GE]
By Maureen McCallAmerican multinational General Electric (GE) will lead a multi-partner front-end engineering and design (FEED) study examining the integration of carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) technology into Southern Company’s James M. Barry natural gas-fired power plant in Alabama, the company said February 15.
The US Department of Energy will contribute funding of $5.77mn to the study, which will explore ways to lower the cost of CCUS while reducing CO2 emissions from natural gas power plants by up to 95%.
The agency is looking to facilitate greater large-scale adoption of CCUS, which has been slow as many projects struggle to be economically viable. But many of those projects rely on so-called “bolt-on” capture technology, rather than on the integration of technology across plant components, including gas turbine, heat recovery steam generators, steam turbines and plant controls, which will be the focus of the FEED study.
Engineers from Southern Company, Linde Engineering, BASF and Kiewit will explore ways to lower the cost of CCUS within an existing plant. The James M. Barry plant uses two of GE Gas Power’s 7F.04 gas turbines.
The study could become the industry’s roadmap for carbon capture from existing and new gas-fired power plants, GE said.
GE is also working with Technip Energies in a separate FEED study for carbon capture at a proposed gas-fired power plant in Teesside, an industrial hub in the UK.
