The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) recently announced that it will send almost $5.6 million to the Tampa Electric Company.
DOE is sending $31 million to projects across the country “to develop carbon capture technologies capable of capturing at least 95 percent of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions generated from natural gas power plants, waste-to-energy power plants, and industrial applications, including cement and steel” which will help “advance the Biden-Harris administration’s goal of a carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035, and a net-zero greenhouse gas economy by 2050.”
U.S. Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy and Carbon Management Brad Crabtree weighed in on the funds last week. DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) will manage the projects.
“Carbon capture technology plays an enormously important role in helping to achieve the deep carbon reductions we need as our energy and industrial sectors transition to net-zero emissions,” said Crabtree. “Today’s investment will support the technological advancement and cost reductions required for widescale deployment.”
“The projects will support development and testing of transformational carbon capture materials, equipment, and processes for applications in natural gas combined cycle (NGCC), waste-to-energy power generation and the industrial sector. Other projects will perform front-end engineering design studies for industrial plants and NGCC power plants integrated with carbon capture systems,” DOE noted before showcasing the funds headed to Florida.
“Polk Power Station NGCC Carbon Capture FEED Study – Tampa Electric Company (Tampa, Florida) is leading a project team to conduct a FEED study for retrofitting ION Clean Energy Inc.’s post-combustion CO2 capture technology at Polk Power Station—an existing 1,190-MW NGCC power station located in Mulberry, Florida. The Polk site has many features that make it an ideal candidate for applying post-combustion carbon capture, including favorable geology for onsite large-scale CO2 storage. The project will be capable of capturing nearly 3.7 million metric tonnes of CO2 per year and will utilize ION’s transformational solvent (ICE-31), which has been developed and demonstrated by ION to achieve a minimum of 95 percent CO2 capture with exceptional long-term stability in NGCC environments. This FEED study will demonstrate how a large and critical unit can be equipped with carbon capture and storage to operate within and support a decarbonized electric grid in the future,” DOE continued.
DOE will contribute $5,588,173 of the $6,985,217 needed to fund the project.
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