Carbon reduction

Two projects  - an existing power plant in North Dakota and a new facility in California - have been selected for up to $408m (£255m) in funding to reduce carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions.

As part of the third round of the US Clean Coal Power Initiative (CCPI), the US Department of Energy will provide $100m of support to Basin Electric Power Cooperative and $308m to Hydrogen Energy International.

The carbon-reduction schemes will employ different technologies to capture at least 90 per cent of the CO₂ emitted at the plants.

For its part, Basin Electric Power Cooperative will partner with Powerspan and Burns & McDonnell to demonstrate the removal of CO₂ from the flue gas of a lignite-based boiler by adding CO₂ capture and sequestration (CCS) to Basin Electric's existing Antelope Valley Station, located near Beulah, North Dakota.

Powerspan's ECO2 ammonia-based technology will be used to capture CO₂ on a 120MW electric-equivalent gas stream from the 450MW Antelope Valley Station Unit 1. The net result will be 90 per cent removal of CO₂ from the treated flue gas, yielding 3,000 short tons per day (1,000,000 tons per year) of pipeline-quality CO₂. The ammonia-based SO₂ scrubbing system will also produce a liquid stream of ammonium sulphate that will be processed into a fertiliser by-product.