Carbon Capture & Storage
G&T Gets $100 Million for Project
The Energy Department has awarded Basin Electric Power Cooperative $100 million to help fund a large-scale carbon capture demonstration project.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu, in announcing the cost-shared agreement with the Bismarck, N.D.-based G&T, July 1, said the project represents a major step forward in the fight to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
“We have the opportunity to lead in clean coal technology,” the secretary said. “This is a great step forward.”
Basin Electric and its partners will demonstrate the removal of CO2 from the flue gas of a lignite-based boiler at the G&T’s Antelope Valley Station near Beulah, N.D.
Basin Electric is working with technology providers to find the best solution for CO2. The successful technology will be used to capture CO2 on a gas stream from Antelope Valley’s 450-MW Unit 1, resulting in 90 percent removal of CO2 from the treated flue gas.
It will also yield 3,000 short tons per day of pipeline-quality carbon dioxide.
The captured gas will be fed into an existing CO2 compression and pipeline system owned by Dakota Gasification Co., transported more than 200 miles to an oil field and injected into the ground for enhanced oil recovery.
The process will also produce ammonium sulfate, which Basin will process into a fertilizer, the department added.
The project, with a total cost of $300 million, is “a big step forward toward the development of clean coal technology,” said Basin CEO and General Manager Ron Harper.