NET Power says it has secured funding and agreements for its $140 million demonstration power plant, which it says produces no greenhouse gas emissions and includes full carbon capture without requiring expensive, efficiency-reducing carbon capture equipment.
The company says the 50 MWt natural gas generation system is the first of a kind.
The project is funded by a combination of cash and in-kind contributions from Exelon and CB&I.
Toshiba has begun manufacturing a supercritical CO2 turbine for the project. Operations, maintenance and development arrangements have been completed with Exelon. Contracts for plant engineering, procurement and construction are in place with CB&I. The inventor of the technology, 8 Rivers Capital, will provide continued technology development services and the intellectual property for the project.
The plant will be built at a site in Texas, with commissioning expected to begin in 2016 and be completed in 2017.
The company says it’s also progressing on design and development of the first 295 MWe commercial-scale NET Power plant.
NET Power’s system uses a supercritical CO2 power cycle known as the Allam Cycle. The company says the technology will match or lower the current cost of electricity from natural gas while also inherently capturing all CO2 and other air emissions. The cycle produces carbon dioxide as a pipeline-quality byproduct, as opposed to in conventional power plants, where CO2 is produced as an exhaust-gas mixed with other pollutants and emitted through a stack.
The pipeline-ready CO2 can be sequestrated or used in enhanced oil recovery. In addition, NET Power plants can either significantly reduce water usage compared to conventional plants, or eliminate water usage entirely, in each case with only a minor reduction in plant efficiency, the company says.
In other carbon capture news, earlier this month SaskPower began full operation of its flagship carbon capture and storage project at the Boundary Dam power plant in Saskatchewan yesterday, making it the world’s first commercial scale carbon capture and storage facility at a coal-fired power plant.
