Carbon Capture Costs: FEED & pre-FEED Cost Reports

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.

Membrane Technology and Research Inc., with Technology Centre Mongstad, Dresser-Rand, Trimeric Corporation, and WorleyParsons/Advisian, is scaling up its advanced Polaris™ membranes for post-combustion CO₂ capture and testing them at engineering scale at TCM in Norway. The Polaris membranes, about 20 times more permeable than prior commercial versions, use a patented selective recycle design to boost CO₂ concentration in flue gas and lower capture costs. The project will design, build, and operate a modular membrane system for a six-month field test, including performance verification, steady-state operation, techno-economic updates, and integration studies with advanced compression technology.

In March 2010, the Scottish CCS (Carbon Capture & Storage) Consortium began an extensive Front End, Engineering and Design (FEED) study to assess what exactly would be required from an engineering, commercial and regulatory, perspective in order to progress the CCS demonstration project at Longannet Power station in Scotland (Goldeneye) through to construction. The study has yielded invaluable knowledge in areas such as cost, design, end-to-end CCS chain operation, health and safety, environment, consent and permitting, risk management, and lessons learnt.