New insights show promise for emissions capture, storage

Technology for capturing carbon dioxide and safely storing it underground rather than releasing it to the atmosphere holds significant promise in the U.S. and abroad, according to researchers at the Ninth Annual Conference on Carbon Capture and Sequestration. Researchers from the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington will discuss results from several lines of work: an assessment of where and when carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology might be deployed within the U.S. and internationally and at what cost, the significant potential for CCS in China, and how an old pollution-control technology can be used today to separate carbon dioxide from flue gas emissions.

The Impact of Price-Driven CCS Adoption on Criteria Air Pollution in the United States: A Preliminary Geospatial and Temporal Analysis

Tuesday, May 11, 2010; 2:30 – 2:50 p.m..; Room 1-A (David L. Lawrence Convention Center)

Using state-of-the-art, in-house modeling tools, PNNL is now able to paint what could be the most comprehensive picture to date of where, when and at what cost society might deploy carbon capture and storage within the U.S. in response to potential climate policy. PNNL research scientist Casie Davidson will discuss the deployment of CCS technology under several scenarios, based in part on climate legislation currently being considered. Davidson will discuss improvements to this work's underlying assumptions and costing algorithm, and present results, including an animation showing potential deployment of CCS in the U.S. over time.

Regional Opportunities for Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage in China: Highlights from Final Results

Wednesday, May 12, 2010; 4:05 p.m.- 4:25 p.m.; Room 4-A (David L. Lawrence Convention Center)

The carbon storage potential in China may contribute significantly to climate change mitigation efforts. PNNL research engineer Robert Dahowski will present final results from a collaboration with China's Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics that show China has strong potential for cost-effective application of carbon capture and storage technologies. In the study, the authors determined that in most areas of China, many candidate emission burial sites are close to where the emissions are produced. This means storing carbon emissions in China could be more geographically and economically feasible than previously realized and assist in reducing emissions from China's carbon-intensive economy.

Revisiting Condensation Flue Gas Cleaning for Coal Fired Power Plant Emission Control

Wednesday, May 12, 2010; 2:30 p.m. – 2:50 p.m.; Room 3-B (David L. Lawrence Convention Center)

PNNL research engineer Mark Bearden revisited 1978 pollution-control work with a modern perspective, looking at the process for capturing carbon dioxide. In 1978, a group from the department of Physics at the University of Oregon discovered that undesirable emissions could be cooled and then separated from flue gas. At that time the emissions of greatest concern to the researchers were sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and heavy metal vapors such as mercury.

PNNL research engineer Corinne Valkenburg will deliver the presentation of this work, and discuss how this process was simulated with carbon dioxide and what the results could mean for coal-fired power plants.

These presentations represent part of PNNL's emissions capture and storage research and development portfolio, which also includes a $50-million internal investment to accelerate development and deployment of integrated emission management solutions.