Palo Alto, California - The Electric Power Research Institute will join with American Electric Power and Alstom in a validation of advanced carbon dioxide capture and storage technologies at AEP’s Mountaineer Plant in New Haven, W.Va.

EPRI will conduct independent evaluations of the carbon dioxide capture process and manage a collaborative of utility participants. The project will capture carbon from a pulverized coal-fired power plant and inject it into a permanent storage site more than 7,800 feet underground.

The data collected and analyzed by the collaborative will support efforts to advance CCS technologies to commercial scale and provide information to the public and industry on future advanced coal generation options.

A 20-MW electric capture system has been installed at AEP’s 1,300-MW Mountaineer Plant, where it will remove about 100,000 metric tons of carbon emissions annually from the flue gas stream of the plant.

The captured carbon will be compressed and injected into two saline reservoirs located beneath the plant site. An event to formally recognize the start up of the AEP-Alstom carbon capture and storage facility will be held Oct. 30 

The Mountaineer project will operate for up to five years and help validate the effectiveness of the Alstom’s patented chilled ammonia process for carbon dioxide capture and the viability of storage in the local geology. The project will provide critical information necessary to scale up capture and storage technologies for new power plants and for retrofit on existing facilities.
Battelle Memorial Institute, a global science and technology enterprise and a leader in carbon storage research, is serving as the consultant for AEP on geological storage. RWE AG, one of the world’s leading power producers and the largest electricity producer in Germany, is collaborating with AEP and Alstom on the project.

The chilled ammonia process may reduce parasitic loads on electric generators compared to other types of capture processes, resulting in lower carbon dioxide capture costs.

A pilot-scale version is being tested by Alstom and EPRI with favorable results at We Energies on a 1.7-MW slipstream from the utility’s Pleasant Prairie plant in Kenosha, Wis.

EPRI is supporting several industry technology demonstrations to help develop a “full portfolio” of technologies needed to make substantial carbon emissions reductions while minimizing economic impacts.

Carbon Capture and Storage technologies from around the world will be discussed at GLOBE 2010 - the upcoming world conference and exposition on the business of the environment. See http://www.globe2010.com for more details.

For More Information: Electric Power Research Institute