Praxair to Seek DOE Funding for Oxy-Coal Project

25-Aug-2008 - USA

In response to a Funding Opportunity recently issued by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Clean Coal Power Initiative, Praxair, Inc. will submit a proposal, working with the Jamestown Oxy-Coal Alliance and others, to demonstrate technology designed to capture carbon dioxide emissions from both new and existing coal-fired electricity-generating plants. If successful, the demonstration project would be the first of its kind in the United States, integrating several tested technologies for the first time.

The Department of Energy (DOE) is making available up to $340 million to be distributed among selected recipients. The DOE will consider cooperative agreements between government and industry to demonstrate, at commercial scale, new technologies that capture carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants and either sequester the carbon dioxide or put it to beneficial use.

The primary site for the demonstration project is the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities in Jamestown, New York. Over the past year, Praxair has been working with an alliance of industrial, engineering and academic partners to define the scope of the Jamestown project which would involve construction of a new 50-megawatt circulating fluidized bed (CFB) plant. The Jamestown Oxy-Coal Alliance members include the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities, Praxair, Dresser-Rand Group, Inc., Ecology and Environment, Inc., AES Corporation, Foster Wheeler North America Corp., Battelle and the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Consistent with the DOE solicitation requesting both a proposed and alternate site, Praxair’s proposal will include an alternate site at the Holland Board of Public Works in Holland, Michigan, which will evaluate a 78-megawatt unit equipped with oxy-coal technology. On August 18, the Holland Board of Public Works approved agreements with Praxair to be included in the proposal and with Battelle and Black & Veatch to conduct preliminary assessment work.

Oxy-coal technology involves the introduction of pure oxygen instead of air into the utility boiler, creating a highly concentrated stream of carbon dioxide which is more economical to capture than emissions from existing systems. The technology is designed to capture more than 90% of the carbon dioxide generated, and also to further reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and mercury.

https://www.chemeurope.com/en/news/86094/praxair-to-seek-doe-funding-for-oxy-coal-project.html