Carbon Capture Costs: FEED & pre-FEED Cost Reports

Membrane Technology & Research Inc., with Sargent & Lundy and CEMEX, is designing a full-scale Polaris membrane CO₂ capture system for the CEMEX Balcones cement plant in New Braunfels, Texas, targeting about 1 million tonnes of CO₂ capture annually. The study will develop the design basis, process design, cost estimates, permitting and safety reviews, constructability assessment, and a techno-economic analysis. Sargent & Lundy will lead the design work, while CEMEX will provide site-specific data for integration.

Tampa Electric Company, with ION Clean Energy, Sargent & Lundy, Koch Specialty Plant Services, and Siemens Energy, completed a FEED study to retrofit post-combustion CO2 capture onto Unit 2 of the Polk Power Station, a 1,190 MWe (1,168 MWe net) 4x4x1 natural gas combined cycle plant in Mulberry, Florida. Using ION Clean Energy's ICE-31 advanced solvent across two parallel capture trains, the design targets at least 95% capture, nearly 3.7 million tonnes of CO2 per year, with downstream Siemens compression and dehydration and integrated pipeline transport to dedicated Class VI geologic storage. Each train includes a direct contact cooler, absorber, stripper, and compression, with the absorber columns sized to support 1x1 operation at 75% combustion turbine load to preserve dispatch flexibility. The study was funded under DOE Award DE-FE0032224 and produced an AACE Class 3 (-20%/+30%) capital cost and cost-of-capture estimate.

Dastur International Inc., with Cleveland-Cliffs Inc., is designing a carbon capture system for the 5 mtpa integrated steel plant in Burns Harbor, Indiana, to capture 50–70% of CO₂ emissions from blast furnace gas. The system will combine a gas flow distribution network, a specialized conditioning process, and ION Clean Energy’s solvent-based capture technology with 90–98% efficiency, with water-gas shift reactors enabling higher capture rates. Dastur will lead overall plant integration and engineering, while ION designs the capture island and Dastur Energy optimizes design and energy performance.