National Carbon Capture Center announces ‘first fire’ of natural gas testing system
New natural gas infrastructure being pursued by the National Carbon Capture Center reached a major milestone this week as it underwent its first fire to guarantee start-up and operational capabilities.
The system is a carbon capture testing operation for natural gas, consisting of a natural gas-fired boiler, flue gas cooler, condenser, and blower. It is meant to aid carbon capture technology developers by expanding testing windows and adding more flexibility to the demonstration and scale of these technologies.
For its first fire, the team on hand-fired up the boiler to a minimum load and then ramped up the system to full load as part of a multistep assessment process.
“While the system is designed to operate at a lower load to simulate a natural gas combined-cycle unit for testing, it also must operate at a higher load that is very close to coal plant conditions,” John Carroll, National Carbon Capture Center project engineer, said. “We were able to put the system through its paces to prove it will operate properly at both conditions and a full range in between.”
The National Carbon Capture Center acts as the primary carbon capture research facility for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). To date, it works with more than 30 organizations in seven countries. Its work has already reduced the projected cost of carbon capture for fossil-based power plants by as much as a third, but it hopes to further cut those figures.
“The natural gas addition positions our facility to meet the needs of technology developers and research institutions looking to test their advanced designs and processes outside of the lab at bench- and pilot-scale,” John Northington, director of the National Carbon Capture Center and Southern Company R&D’s director of net-zero technologies, said. “With this new infrastructure and our highly specialized team, carbon capture innovators will have more options for moving their technologies forward.”
Southern Company manages and operates the facility as part of an agreement with DOE and the National Energy Technology Laboratory.
