Presentations on CCS & CCR made in Track H at EUEC 2015, San Diego, CA.
H8.1 W.A. PARISH POST-COMBUSTION CO2 CAPTURE & SEQUESTRATION PROJECT
Ted McMahon, Project Manager, U.S. Department of Energy; Anthony Armpriester, Petra Nova LLC
The U.S. Department of Energy is providing financial assistance to Petra Nova Parish Holding, LLC,
a subsidiary of NRG Energy, Inc. (NRG) to demonstrate the addition of a commercial-scale postcombustion
carbon capture technology on the existing coal-fired W.A. Parish Generating Station
located southwest of Houston, Texas. The project will demonstrate the ability of an advanced
amine-based CO2 capture system to capture 90 percent of the CO2 emitted from a flue gas stream
equivalent to 240 Megawatts in size. The host power generation unit will not be derated because the
power & thermal energy required to operate the CO2 capture & compression system will be provided
by a cogeneration plant comprised of a combustion turbine with a heat recovery boiler. The captured
CO2 will be compressed & transported through an 80 mile pipeline to an operating oil field where it
will be utilized for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) & ultimately sequestered. The focus of this paper will
be to update the status & progress of project development & execution activities of this first-of-a-kind,
commercial scale, CO2 capture & sequestration project.
H8.2 ION’s Advanced CO2 Capture Solvent: Initiation of Slipstream Pilot Demonstration
Nathan Brown, VP Research and Development, ION Engineering; Nathan Brown, Greg Staab, Sr. & Rene Kupfer, ION Engineering; Jason E. Bara, The University of Alabama
ION Engineering has recently initiated a 0.5 MWth SlipStream Pilot demonstration, which will evaluate
ION’s lead CO2 capture solvent over the course of several test runs culminating with a continuous 1,000-
hour test run. Previous testing has resulted in what we believe are solid heat and material balances from
which ION’s solvent performance can be reliably evaluated. However long term empirical information
surrounding solvent degradation (thermal and/or chemical) is limited to date, this study will seek to
determine reasonable expectations of the solvent lifetime The Slipstream Pilot demonstration will aim to
confirm previous heat and material balances and to evaluate the lifetime of ION’s lead CO2 capture
solvent over the 1,000 continuous test run. ION’s Slipstream Demonstration project is currently in the
second of three 15month phases, spanning a total of 4years. An update on the project will be given,
design elements finalized in the 1st Phase will be discussed, and update will be given on procurement,
fabrication and construction of the Process Test Unit (PTU). And, Finally results from bench work in the
first budget period will be discussed along with their significance in enabling detailed site-specific rate
based engineering studies and simulations which can be used to model the performance and impact
of ION’s CO2 capture system on a given plant.
H8.3 Study of CO2 adsorption mechanism under existence of H2O on novel CeO2-based adsorbent
Kohei Yoshikawa, Researcher, Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi Research Laboratory; Masato Kaneeda, Hitachi, Ltd.; Hidehiro Nakamura & Toshiaki Shirasaka, Hitachi Chemical
CCS from coal-fired power plants is important to reduce CO2. CO2 adsorptive separation is one of
the promising CO2 capture technologies. For higher CO2 capture efficiency, novel CeO2-based
CO2 adsorbent with large CO2 adsorption capacity in the presence of H2O & lower CO2 desorption
temperature has been developed. CO2 adsorption capacity at exhaust gas CO2 concentration (12
vol%) was measured under wet (with 3 vol% H2O) condition. CO2 adsorption capacity of commercial
adsorbent such as zeolite decreases drastically under wet condition. In contrast, the CeO2-based
adsorbent exhibited large capacity. This feature is desirable to save energy consumption because it
makes dehumidification process unnecessary. For further understanding of adsorption mechanism, CO2
coordination on CeO2 was analyzed. It was revealed that coordination called hydrogen carbonate
species was mainly formed under wet condition. This coordination is assumed to be generated by
reaction between CO2 & surface hydroxyl groups which increase under wet condition. Thus, the CeO2-
based adsorbent can sustain its capacity in the presence of H2O. CO2 desorption temperature of
hydrogen carbonate was the lowest among coordination observed. Due to the formation of hydrogen
carbonate species, the CeO2-based adsorbent can desorb CO2 at lower temperature under wet
condition than under dry condition. These features indicate the CeO2-based adsorbent is suitable for
CO2 capture from wet gas at coal-fired power plants.
H8.4 Sequestration of Carbon in Forests in Northeast BC under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
Christopher Maundrell, President, Peace Carbon Trades Ltd
Peace Carbon Trades Ltd (PCTL) has been developed to capture atmospheric carbon by growing
and renewing forest lands. Located in Northeast British Columbia our “mission” of PCTL it three fold.
We were formed to be a for profit company that trades carbon credits from lands owned by the
company, to purchase lands to reforest and, assist other land owners whom have a desire to conserve
and reforest marginal agricultural lands. We have over 20 years experience in the reforestation fields
and have managed afforestation plans, planting agriculture lands and managing plantations. PCTL
uses the Canadian Forest Service Budget Model to calculate carbon in our forests. We have also
traveled to Asia on projects in China which is using the same budget model. PCTL believes there is an
immense untapped resource in Northeast BC that can be used to make significant contributions to
Government Climate Action Plans by sequestering carbon by reforesting and maintaining marginal
agriculture lands as forested lands. Northeast BC has the largest concentration of lands dedicated to
the BC Agriculture Lands Reserve, yet much of these lands are marginal or even poor agriculture lands.
Maintaining these forests before they are cleared, or planning afforestation on cleared lands for the
purpose of carbon sequestration for carbon offset trading is compliant with the UN Protocol for Land
Use, Land Use Change and Forestry.
H9.1 Development of Innovative Manganese Oxide Based Oxygen Carriers for Chemical Looping Combustion
Ngozi Ekpe, PhD Student, University of Nottingham; Colin E. Snape, Cheng-Gong Sun & Hao Liu
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is one option towards combating climate change by reducing
carbon dioxide emissions. Chemical Looping Combustion (CLC) is relatively new CCS combustion
technology with no direct contact between air and fuel. CLC process utilizes oxygen from Oxygen
Carrier (OC) for fuel combustion and gives carbon dioxide and steam as products. OC development
is still a challenge facing CLC process. Some requirements for a suitable material to be used as OC
include stability with cycles, high reactivity and Oxygen Transport Capacity (OTC). This study focused
on development of innovative co-precipitated Mn-Fe/ZrO2 calcined at 1050oC for 2 hours. Their
feasibility for CLC was evaluated using gaseous fuel at 900oC in a thermogravimetric analyser and
characterized with regards to morphological and chemical composition. The results obtained show
OTC yield of about 10.50%, relatively high reactivity and stable performance during multi-cycle test.
Significant changes in OTC and reactivity suggest that the synergistic effect varies with ratios of the
single oxides in the bimetallic oxygen carrier. Interestingly, co-precipitated MnOx/ZrO2 oxygen carrier
with OTC of about 3.0% was found to exhibit very fast reduction and oxidation rates compared to Mn-
Fe/ZrO2 OC and maintained its OTC and stability in a 30 multi-cycle test with no sign of deactivation
These fundamental findings show that these developed oxygen carriers are promising for chemical
looping combustion.
H9.2 Reactive and Pore Structure Changes in Carbon Dioxide Sequestration
Hyukmin Kweon, Ph.D candidate, University of Utah; Christian Payne & Milind Deo
The importance of reactions involving CO2, brine and rock formations into which CO2 is injected for
CO2 sequestration in saline aquifers is understood. However, the pore-level changes that occur due
to these reactions and their impact on the ultimate fate of CO2 in the repository have not received
the same level of attention due to the perceived slowness of the reactions. In this paper we examine
these reactive changes and their impact on the pore structure in sandstones and limestones at realistic
aquifer pressure and temperatures. The changes observed at the pore-level by direct porosity and
micro-computer tomography measurements were complemented by the measurements of timedependent
effluent concentrations of target cations. It is observed that iron chemistry plays an
important role in the dissolution and precipitation reactions in Berea sandstone. The porosity increase
due to dissolution in bottom (inlet) section, whereas porosity in top (outlet) section reduced due to
precipitation at low flow rate especially. In limestones, consistent dissolution is observed throughout the
experiment. Wormholes are also generated for experiments with a larger flow rate. Results show that
reactive changes can cause significant pore-level changes over a short injection span during CO2
sequestration in saline aquifers with profound implications on injectivity and possibly major mechanical
changes including induced seismicity.
H9.3 A Pilot-scale Prototype CO2 Adsorption with TVSA Process
Fengsheng Su, Post-doc, National Chung Hsing University; Chungsying Lu
A pilot-scale prototype CO2 adsorber was constructed at 50 MWh coal-fired power generator, which
is located in Yunlin County, Taiwan. This study used zeolite 13X as adsorbent for CO2 capture and used
microalgae Chlorella sp. for CO2 fixation to eliminate effluent CO2 from desorbed gas from desorption
process. The temperature/vacuum swing adsorption (TVSA) process was employed for dual-bed
adsorption system to have cyclic CO2 adsorption/desorption. The flue gas was from post-FGD (fluegas
desulfurization) that was fed to CO2 adsorption system with 1 CMM of flow rate, 14-15% of CO2
concentration and 50-55°C of temperature. The flue gas from FGD system was cooled down to 25°C
to condense water to prevent competitive adsorption between water molecular and CO2. The highly
CO2 removal efficiency was found from this dual-bed TVSA system which has 97.24% in average during
adsorption process before adsorption breakthrough. Among 60 days operation, the greatest rate of
CO2 were 450 kg/day. The desorbed CO2 was collected into pressurized tank for temporary storage
and that CO2 concentration was adjusted to 20-30% then fed into microalgae system as carbon
source with a series bio-photoreactor. The inlet flow rate of CO2 was adjusted to 1-4 l/min and inlet to 5
bio-photoreactors in series. The effluence CO2 concentration from microalgae system was in the range
of 0-0.5%, which was about 86-99% of CO2 removal efficiency.
H9.4 Comparative studies of CO2 capture via Pressure Swing Adsorption for Zeolites & Amine Modified Mesoporous Silicas & Metal Organic Frameworks
Eleni Tsalaporta, PhD researcher – Chemical Engineer, University College Dublin (UCD); Chuan Liu & Professor Don MacElroy
The capture of carbon dioxide via Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) has been examined experimentally
and mathematically. The adopted method was a two bed/four step process, known as the Skarstrom
Cycle. Experimentally, the performance of zeolites and amine modified mesoporous silicas has been
investigated for different experimental conditions (cycle time, pressure ratio, feed/purge ratio) and
will be compared with the performance of metal organic frameworks (CuBT). Pelletised and calcined
SBA-15 powder has been modified with a monoamine, a diamine and a triamine and has been tested
in a PSA configuration. The performance of the monoamine modified SBA-15 was more than doubled
with the presence of polyamines groups (diamine/triamine modified SBA-15) extending the adsorption
capacity of the material (chemisorption), but still non comparable to the performance of zeolite 13X
(physisorption). However, the presence of moisture is expected to enhance the adsorption capacity of
the amine modified materials, by encouraging the formation of carbonates in contrast to carbamates
and decrease the adsorption capacity of zeolites, due to their high selectivity to water. These results will
be compared to the performance of pellet shaped CuBTC (MOF) The employed mathematical model
is a based on linear coupled diffusion with a non-linear driving force approximation. The simulations are
obtained with gProms.
H9.5 Effects of Contaminants to Pre-combustion CO2 Capture Solvents
Fan Shi, Sr Materials Scientist, URS/NETL; Brian Kail,AECOM Corp.; Hunaid Nulwala & David Luebke, CMU; Nicholas Siefert, NETL
The pre-combustion capture process involves converting fossil fuel into syngas, primarily a mixture
of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, usually by gasification. During pre-combustion, coal is first
transformed into hydrogen and CO2. In a CO2 separation unit, the carbon dioxide is separated from
the hydrogen using a solvent, such as ionic liquids (ILs). This process has the potential of capturing
and removing 90 percent of CO2 emissions from power plants – major contributors to global warming.
ILs are salts with many advantages over conventional pre-combustion CO2 capture materials,
including low melting points, longer lifetimes and higher stability over a range of process conditions.
While ILs for CO2 capture are a popular research topic, less attention has been focused on the impact
of contaminants, i.e., water and coal derived contaminants (primarily H2S), on ILs for pre-combustion
carbon capture process. We explore the use of physical solvents for pre-combustion carbon capture.
Four solvents have been under investigation, including PDMS, hybrid-PDMS, and two types of ILs, i.e.,
P888 allyl Tf2N and allyl pyridinum Tf2N, with different initial viscosity. A 1-liter Continuous Stirred Tank
Reactor (CSTR) equipped with a 2-liter gas buffer tank has been used to measure CO2 isotherms and
CO2 breakthrough curves at different temperatures. For CO2 solubility and kinetics measurement
without contaminants, a dynamic pressure-step method was applied.
H5.1 U.S. EPA CCR Compliance. Maximize Capacity & Transition Your Existing Disposal Site
James Perry, Project Associate, Sargent & Lundy LLC; Douglas Dahlberg
The electrical generating community is well aware of the U.S. EPA’s-proposed first-time nationwide
regulations for disposal of coal combustion residuals (CCRs). Now that the final rule is published,
classifying CCRs under Subtitle D, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) similar to
municipal waste, managers at coal fired power plants need to know: What decisions to make;
Available alternatives – close in place or excavate and dispose; Factors affect those decisions to
minimize risk; Cost of the options; and, How to transition in compliance with the new rule. Final rule
disposal requirements and costs are understood. The critical question is “how to convert your current
disposal operation with minimum disruption and expense?” Making timely decisions and taking action
are essential to ensure a smooth transition. In addition to comparing the various costs of alternatives,
several other environmental criteria will influence your ultimate decision. Whether your site is wet or dry
disposal, the best option may be to combine alternatives by continuing to use your existing disposal
site, close in place, and transition your site in compliance with the new rule. One of the most critical
factors in making these decisions is the various compliance trigger dates. This presentation also offers
engineering solutions available for compliance transition and how to best utilize your existing disposal
site. Your site is unique and so will be your disposal decisions.
H5.2 They’re Here!!! Review of the New Federal Regulations for CCR
Mark Rokoff, National Practice Lead, CCP Management, AECOM
On June 21, 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed options for the
regulation, management, and disposal of coal combustion residuals (CCRs) generated at
electric utilities and independent power producers under the Resource Conservation and
Recovery Act (RCRA). Final action regarding EPA’s proposed revision of the RCRA Subtitle
D Regulations is set to take place by December 19, 2014. Regulation under the anticipated
Subtitle D will set national minimum criteria for facilities generating and disposing of CCRs.
With the release of the final CCR Rules, an overview and clarification of the rule’s key components and
how it applies will be presented.
H5.3 STAR Fly Ash Beneficiation – Processing Reclaimed CCP’s
William Fedorka, Director, Engineering, The SEFA Group
The positive economic & technical benefits of utilizing fly ash as a replacement for cement in concrete
have been well established. Further, it is well known that ever increasing environmental regulations on
coal-fired plants has led to the development of several types of fly ash beneficiation processes in order
to make a product suitable for utilization. The SEFA Group, a longtime leader in the fly ash utilization
industry, has developed a new, unique, & proprietary thermal beneficiation technology offering
many new advantages & opportunities not formerly available with other beneficiation processes. The
STAR – Staged Turbulent Air Reactor – technology has demonstrated the ability to manufacture a
premium product that can be applied across a wide variety of new markets not previously open to
coal combustion products. To date this new technology has been successfully demonstrated on a
commercial scale at both the SCE&G’s McMeekin Station & NRG’s Morgantown Station. A new STAR
system is currently under construction at Santee Cooper’s Winyah Station in Georgetown, SC designed
to use reclaimed fly ash as its primary raw feed source without the need of additional energy inputs.
This new adaptation of a proven technology can eliminate future disposal, while also removing fly ash
from nearby disposal sites & directing it to beneficial use. Beneficiating reclaimed fly ash has been
successfully accomplished using an existing STAR facility.
H5.4 Managing Ash with Dense Slurry while Cutting Costs and Complying with CCR and ELG
Dale Timmons, Program Manager, Business Development, NAES Corporation
The MATS, CCR and ELG rules have targeted and corralled contaminants from coal combustion.
Carbon used for mercury control can taint fly ash making it unsuitable for use in concrete. Other
emission control efforts can also transfer contaminants to ash and certain wastewaters. This shift in the
final disposition of contaminants presents challenges for wastewater and ash management. Traditional
dry ash management satisfies the proposed rules but is expensive and requires close control to prevent
fugitive dust. Compacted, dry ash impoundments also exhibit high hydraulic conductivity which
translates to high rates of leachate production. Dense Slurry System (DSS) technology mixes minimal
water or wastewater with CCR’s (fly ash, bottom ash, gypsum) to produce a stable end product without
the need for discharge of transport water. Once cured, the product exhibits low hydraulic conductivity,
high compressional strength, little or no dust and enhanced metals sequestration. DSS achieves the
goals of the ELG and CCR rules. EPA’s criteria for Best Available Technology (BAT) in the ELG include:
proven technology, low complexity, low life-cycle cost, ability to utilize existing infrastructure, energy
efficient, and ability to achieve the standards. DSS meets these criteria and is less expensive than
traditional dry ash handling methods. DSS is used in Europe and in the US. Testing will commence in the
fall of 2014 on more plants in the US the results of which will be reported.
H5.5 Coal Ash—A Regulatory & Litigation Update
Sam Boxerman, Partner, Sidley Austin LLP; Ben Tannen
Coal-fired power plants generate coal ash – some of the ash is used beneficially, but a significant
volume is managed in landfills and surface impoundments which have been the subject of
considerable scrutiny by regulators and interested stakeholders. This presentation will look at how coal
ash management is presently regulated (including under the final rule expected to be issued before
the conference). The presentation will also review and provide an update on litigation against utilities
over their coal ash management practices, a phenomenon of the past several years.
H5.6 Ash Sweepers – The State of the Art Online Catalyst Cleaning System
Nick Pollack, Chief Technology Officer, SCR Tech
For years, sonic horns and rake style sootlbowers have been the only devices used to control ash
buildup on the catalyst modules in reactors following coal-fired boilers. These devices have proven
to be ineffective with overcoming ash distribution problems that result in ash piling. It is common for
reactors to have 10% to 50% of the catalyst modules covered in ash. In the last couple of years, SCR
Tech has been successful with overcoming the ash distribution problem that causes the ash piling
through the use of Ash Sweepers. This presentation will cover the root cause of the problem, the
principle of operation of the Ash Sweepers and the success of operation of the Ash Sweepers on more
than 10 reactors. The installation experience is on reactors following boilers burning PRB and eastern
bituminous coals. These reactors are using a variety of catalyst: plate, honeycomb and corrugated.