Powerspan Corp has unleashed new technology to capture carbon dioxide from coal-fueled power plants. Powerspan, a clean energy technology company, owns the exclusive rights to this breakthrough in coal-based energy production.
Powerspan Corp. has exclusively licensed a patent to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from conventional coal-fueled electric power plants. Patented by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), the post-combustion, regenerative process uses an ammonia- based solution to capture CO2 from flue gas and release it in a form that is ready for safe transportation and permanent geological storage.
Recently, Powerspan and NRG Energy, Inc., (NRG) announced a memorandum of understanding to demonstrate at commercial scale the CO2 capture process at NRG’s WA Parish plant near Sugar Land, Texas. The demonstration is expected to be operational in 2012 and will be conducted on flue gas equivalent in quantity to that which is released from a 125 megawatt unit (approximately one million tons of CO2 to be captured annually).
The CO2 capture takes place after the NOx, SO2, mercury, and fine particulate matter are captured. Once the CO2 is captured, the ammonia-based solution is regenerated to release the CO2 in a form that renders it ready for geological storage. The ammonia solution is recovered and sent back through the scrubbing process. Ammonia is not consumed in the CO2 scrubbing process, and no separate by-product is created. The process can be applied to both existing and new coal-fueled power plants and is particularly advantageous for sites where ammonia-based scrubbing of power plant emissions is employed.
Powerspan and NRG plan to demonstrate a commercial scale CO2 capture by 2012.