Bench-Scale and Slipstream Development and Testing of Post-Combustion Carbon Dioxide Capture and Separation Technology for Application to Existing Coal-Fired Power Plants

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This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is specifically focused on developing technologies for CO2 capture and purification that can be retrofitted to existing pulverized coal (PC) power plants. This is driven by the fact that existing coal-fired power plants produce a large fraction of the current CO2 emissions from all fossil-fuel-based sources, and only about 3 GW of the existing coal-fired fleet is projected to retire by 2030. Therefore, it is possible that future climate change regulations could target a reduction in CO2 emissions from the existing fleet of coal boilers. To prepare for this possibility, cost effective technologies are sought for capturing CO2 from PC-based power plants. It is anticipated that the technologies developed under this funding opportunity may also have application to new PC plants as well. Applications are sought for bench-scale development and testing; and slipstream development and testing of advanced post-combustion CO2 capture technologies. The overall technical and cost goal of this FOA is the development of advanced CO2 capture and separation technologies that can achieve at least 90% CO2 removal (captured CO2 must represent at least 90% of the carbon in the fuel fed to the power plant) at no more than a 35% increase in cost of electricity produced at the plant (1). A detailed background on this target can be found on the National Energy Technology Laboratory¿s Innovations for Existing Plants website: http://www.netl.doe.gov/technologies/coalpower/ewr/co2/goals.html Carbon dioxide capture systems can be divided into three general categories: post-combustion, pre-combustion, and oxy-combustion/chemical looping. This FOA is focusing on post-combustion CO2 capture for existing boilers. Pre-combustion CO2 capture, oxycombustion/chemical looping, biological capture, and CO2 compression projects are NOT being sought under this Announcement. Specifically, applications are sought in the following Areas of Interest: Bench-Scale Development and Testing of Post-combustion CO2 Capture Area of Interest B1: Membranes Area of Interest B2: Solvents Area of Interest B3: Condensed Phase Capture Slipstream Development and Testing of Post-combustion CO2 Capture Area of Interest S1: Membranes Area of Interest S2: Solvents Area of Interest S3: Solid Sorbents (1) The cost component includes not only the costs associated with CO2 capture, regeneration, and compression, but also includes CO2 transportation, storage, and monitoring costs. It should be assumed that the CO2 will be transported no more than 50 miles from the power plant and would be stored in a saline formation. In a typical CO2 capture system analysis, the transportation, storage and monitoring costs represent about 4% of the increase in cost of energy services. Therefore, applicants should consider all costs in demonstrating that the proposed technology can achieve the 35% or below cost target.

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