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NET Power, the developer of the new Allam-Fetvedt supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO 2) power cycle, said that its 50 MWth test facility in La Porte, Texas supplied power to the grid overnight on November 16. This achievement marks an important milestone. Some commercial power plants are already developing potentially revolutionary technologies.
NET Power is a company jointly owned by North Carolina-based 8 Rivers Capital and industry heavyweights Exelon, McDermott and Occidental Low Carbon Ventures. It has been quietly developing the Allam-Fetvedt Cycle (AFC) since 2012. It has been trying to verify that it has installed many of its first-of-its-kind components in its La Porte test facility (Figure 1), but it marked its last major technical victory in May 2018, when it achieved a new commercial design designed by Toshiba First ignition of a 50 MWth burner on a scale. La Porte facilities.
Ron DeGregorio, CEO of NET Power, suggested that the transmission of the first batch of electricity from the La Porte facility to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid marks a critical next step. "This is the first energy breakthrough that the Wright brothers have achieved-using natural gas fuel technology to deliver zero-emission, low-cost electricity to the grid," he said on Tuesday.
A NET Power spokesperson told POWER on November 18 that although the test facility cannot operate continuously, the grid synchronization process on Tuesday produced "enough energy to power more than 1,000 American homes." He added: "We expect utility-scale plants to be in the 280-300 MWe range, enough to power approximately 250,000 American homes."
The grid synchronization test basically completed the AFC demonstration of NET Power. "The purpose is to verify the NET Power technology and system and make it ready for commercialization," the spokesperson said. He said the La Porte facility will now "continue to be used as a world-class testing facility for this technology for further improvements."
However, overall, the demonstration key shows that the technology can achieve complete separation of pure carbon dioxide. The spokesperson said: "Since the test facility is not in continuous operation, we currently do not emit the carbon dioxide produced." However, "all commercial NET Power projects will be designed to achieve complete carbon capture to inject carbon dioxide into pipelines or underground storage," he pointed out.
As POWER reported in depth, AFC stems from 8 Rivers' efforts to commercialize a flexible, reliable and low-cost natural gas power plant that does not generate atmospheric emissions and can completely capture carbon dioxide.
NET Power AFC is essentially a dedicated Brayton cycle in which the burner is supplied by three flow rates: fuel gas, which is compressed in a fuel compressor; oxygen, which is produced in an air separation unit and then compressed; and Carbon dioxide working fluid heated in a multi-stream regenerator.
The combustion of this oxygen-fuel mixture in a CO2 environment (Figure 2) produces high-temperature products, which then enter the carbon dioxide turbine. These products drive the generator and then enter the multi-flow heat accumulator, where some of their heat is transferred to the heating flow. The stream is then directed to the cooler separator, where its water and carbon dioxide content is separated. Part of the CO2 is compressed to supercritical pressure, and the rest is sent to storage.
According to industry estimates, the reduced turbine size of ACF (through its new oxygen burner) is expected to provide greater cost-effective flexibility. NET Power estimates that the efficiency of a natural gas AFC plant with carbon capture and storage functions is as high as 59% at a lower heating value. The estimated capital cost ranges from $900/kW to $1,200/kW.
At the same time, 8 Rivers has so far announced plans to build two 280 MW NET Power natural gas power plants in the United States, including the Coyote Clean Energy Project in southwestern Colorado, which will be located in the South Ute Indian Reserve , And the Broadwing clean energy project Complex, 8 Rivers is working with agricultural and processing company Archer-Daniels-Midlands Co. (ADM) to develop an existing carbon dioxide storage facility site in Decatur, Illinois. The final investment decisions for these two projects are respectively expected next year, and power production is expected to be in 2025.
In July, Zero Degrees Whitetail Development Ltd. (ZDW), a subsidiary of 8 Rivers, and Sembcorp Energy UK, a subsidiary of Singapore Sembcorp, stated that they are exploring the development of the UK’s first 300 MW natural gas net power station on existing sites. Teesside. Although the two companies did not provide a potential start date, 8 Rivers stated that the project may be the first of “multiple 300 MW facilities in the UK” and may commission a NET power station in the UK “as soon as 2025” . "
In August of this year, Frog Lake First Nation, the major shareholder of Frog Lake Energy Resources Corp., a leading local energy company in Canada, collaborated with KANATA Clean Power and Climate Technologies to build a 300 MW power plant using NET Power’s patented technology. However, on November 1, the Canadian decarbonization development and asset management platform KANATA announced that the engineering and design company WSP Canada will become the owner engineer of the Frog Lake power plant. The project is under development, and construction is expected to start in 2023, and power generation will begin in 2025.
NET Power noted on Tuesday that all of its initial projects are expected to be "online within the next five years." NET Power spokesperson also said that there are several other projects under development. "As a result of NET Power's sales efforts so far, most major power, oil and gas companies in the United States and many foreign companies are paying close attention to testing facilities and starting to incorporate this technology into their planning activities," he said. "Among them Some customers are actively working on the development of initial commercial facilities in the U.S. and around the world. Several projects have been publicly announced with the goal of achieving commercial operations in 2025. We expect many factories to be rapidly deployed globally."
Now that La Porte’s first power has been achieved, the company’s next steps will include expanding its “deep partner platform to accelerate the development of global commercial NET Power projects, which desperately need help to achieve positive results at an affordable price. Climate goals," said CEO De Gregorio.
8 Rivers Capital, the inventor of AFC, also aimed at a broader vision of decarbonization. On November 9, the company signed a "comprehensive cooperation agreement" with Japanese company JX Nippon Oil Exploration to accelerate carbon capture and hydrogen production on a global scale. JX Nippon has implemented several high-profile carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) projects, such as Petra Nova. Together with Allam Cycle, 8 Rivers is developing 8 RH 2 (a hydrogen production process using complete carbon capture) and industrial decarbonization technologies, including TarT acid gas treatment systems and net-zero solutions for steel production, direct air capture, and Point source carbon capture.
—— Sonal Patel is the senior associate editor of POWER (@sonalcpatel, @POWERmagazine).
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