Overview & Advantages
ECO2® – CO2 Capture
90% CO2 Capture for Existing and New Coal-Fired Power Plants.
Currently in demonstration at pilot scale.
Powerspan’s CO2 capture process, called ECO2®, can be applied to both existing and new coal-fired electric power plants to capture 90 percent CO2 from the flue gas. The process is designed as an add-on system that could be deployed when needed.
The CO2 capture process is most cost effective when used in combination with one of our two multi-pollutant control processes. However the CO2 capture process could be applied at facilities where SO2 emissions are already being controlled by an existing scrubbing process.
The technology is currently being piloted on a 1-megawatt (MW) slipstream at FirstEnergy’s R.E. Burger Plant in Shadyside, Ohio. The ECO2 pilot unit employs the same type of equipment that will be used in commercial systems. Because the innovation of ECO2 is in its process chemistry, not in new industrial equipment, the risk in scaling from the pilot scale to commercial scale carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) projects is manageable. See the Projects page for further information on our pilot.
Key advantages of our CO2 capture process include:
- Suitability for existing and new pulverized coal-fired power plants
- Reduced cost
- Reduced energy requirements
- Higher performance
- No new waste streams
- Avoids equipment corrosion problems
- Regenerative process; does not consume ammonia
- Generates pipeline quality CO2; no separate byproduct created
Powerspan has been developing the CO2 capture process since 2004 in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory under a cooperative research and development agreement. In December 2007 Powerspan announced it exclusively licensed a patent for the process from the DOE. The patent granted to the DOE represents the only patent issued in the U.S. to date covering a regenerative process for CO2 capture with an ammonia-based solution. Powerspan has since conducted extensive bench-scale testing to establish the effectiveness of the process for CO2 capture, and has made improvements to the subject patent. This testing established the design parameters for the aforementioned ECO2 pilot unit in operation today.