CCS with the Alstom chilled ammonia process development program–Field pilot results

Power generation is one of the biggest sources of man-made carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the main anthropologic greenhouse gas. As the combustion of fossil fuels generates CO2 emissions, new technologies are required to enable the power sector to continue to meet the global demand for electric power, while controlling the CO2 emissions that contribute to global warming. To achieve meaningful reductions, it will be necessary to develop technologies that can be applied to both greenfield projects and to the existing fleet through cost effective retrofits. Among those technologies under development, Post-Combustion Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) using the Chilled Ammonia Process (CAP) technology is one of the more promising solutions.Testing and technology development for CAP has been completed at the We Energies Field Pilot and is underway at the E.ON Karlshamn and AEP Mountaineer facilities. This paper will report on the progress being made at those three facilities and describe how the data being generated is contributing to the commercial scale-up of the technology. The current status of these facilities is as follows:
• The We Energies Field Pilot, designed to capture over 15,000 metric tonnes/year of CO2, commenced operations in June 2008 and was operated through October 2009. This first of a kind Proof of Concept unit demonstrated that CAP could be applied to coal fired applications.
• The E.ON Karlshamn Field Pilot, designed to capture over 15,000 metric tonnes/year of CO2, was commissioned in April of 2009 and captures CO2 emissions from a boiler combusting a high sulfur fuel oil.
• The Product Validation Facility (PVF) at American Electric Power (AEP)’s coal-fired Mountaineer Power Plant, inaugurated in September 2009, is designed to capture and store 100,000 metric tonnes/year of CO2. The Chilled Ammonia Product Validation Facility treats a flue gas slipstream taken from a location downstream of Mountaineer’s existing selective catalytic reduction (SCR), electrostatic precipitator (ESP), and wet flue gas desulfurization (WFGD) systems. Deployment of a CAP facility in this configuration represents a significant step in the technology scale-up process. This project scope includes CO2 capture, compression, and storage in two geologic reservoirs with injection wellheads located on the plant property. AEP worked with Battelle to develop the geologic storage system.This paper describes the Chilled Ammonia Process Development Program and provides an update on the CO2 capture pilot plants status including the AEP Mountaineer Product Validation Facility.