DOE awards $11.5 million for 12 carbon capture and storage projects

The U.S. Department of Energy awarded $11.5 million for 12 projects as part of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy’s (ARPA-E) FLExible Carbon Capture and Storage (FLECCS) program.

“The FLECCS projects will work to address critical carbon capture and storage needs in our nation’s power systems,” ARPA-E Director Lane Genatowski said. “The FLECCS program is intended to enable the next generation of flexible, low-cost, and low-carbon electricity systems, and we are eager to work with these teams to innovate the grid of the future.”

FLECCS project teams are developing carbon capture and storage (CCS) retrofits to existing power generators that intake fossil carbon-containing fuel like natural gas or bio-gas and output electricity. In Phase 1 of the program, the FLECCS project teams will design, model, and optimize carbon capture and storage processes that enable flexibility on a high-VRE grid. In Phase 2, they will focus on building components, unit operations, and prototype systems to reduce technical risks and costs.

One of those awarded funding is Linde Gas North America from Murray Hill, N.J., for its Process Integration and Optimization of an NGCC Power Plant with CO2 Capture, Hydrogen Production and Storage. Linde Gas aims to develop such a system for natural gas-fired power plants using post-combustion carbon capture and hydrogen technologies. The DOE awarded them $479,966 in funding.

Another is Susteon, from Cary, N.C., which was awarded $789,009 for A Rapid Temperature Swing Adsorption Carbon Capture Technology for Optimal Operation of a Fossil Power Plant.

Susteon will evaluate a CO2 capture technology using solid sorbents based on thermal swing adsorption that enables power generators to operate the power plant in a “load following” mode.