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State partners with electric utilities on CO2 capture projects

The North Dakota Industrial Commission has agreed to invest $300,000 in a $3.4 million “Partnership for CO2 Capture” project as part of its Lignite Research, Development and Marketing Program. Other partners in the 16-month project include the U.S. Department of Energy along with LEC members Basin Electric Power Cooperative, Minnesota Power, SaskPower, Black & Veatch, Rio Tinto and Unifield.

The goal of the program is to demonstrate a wide range of carbon capture technologies to identify the key challenges associated with each in order to develop strategies for cost-effective and efficient implementation at the commercial scale.

The project is under the direction of the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) at the University of North Dakota. EERC will conduct pilot-scale demonstration testing of selected carbon dioxide (CO2) separation and capture technologies for fossil fuel- and biomass-fired systems.

“With Congress and states contemplating control of CO2 emissions from coal-based electric generation, it is critical to identify cost-effective carbon capture technologies that can be applied to existing and new plants,” said Jeff Burgess, director of the Lignite Research, Development and Marketing Program. “This project will look at the more promising approaches and examine the feasibility of scaling up these potential technologies to a commercial scale.”

The technologies to be tested in pilot-scale systems at the EERC include solvent scrubbing, oxygen-fired combustion and other technologies such as gas separation membranes.

Besides demonstrating CO2 capture, the technologies will also be tested to see what levels of other emissions can be controlled, namely, sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxides, particulate and mercury.

The project will also evaluate the impact of fuel characteristics on the various technologies. The fuel types will include lignite, subbituminous and bituminous coal as well as natural gas, petroleum coke and biomass.

A final report will be developed, which will include all of the various tests using a variety of fuels. The project sponsors will also receive quarterly and annual reports.

The North Dakota Industrial Commission receives about $3 million a year as part of the severance tax on coal, which is used for the Lignite Research, Development and Marketing Program projects. Potential R&D projects are screened by the Lignite Research Council and only those approved are forwarded to the Industrial Commission, which consists of Governor John Hoeven, Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem and Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson, for their consideration.