DOE Plans New Round of Clean Coal Demonstrations

CO2 Capture Focus of Round 3

Washington, DC - The U.S. Department of Energy announced today it is planning a new round of its Clean Coal Power Initiative (CCPI), aimed at technologies that will capture carbon dioxide for sequestration or other beneficial uses.    

MORE INFO Read the Notice of Intent

The Office of Fossil Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory today published a Notice of Intent to issue a funding opportunity announcement for Round 3 of the Clean Coal Power Initiative. The CCPI is a cost-sharing partnership between the government and industry to demonstrate advanced coal-based electric power generation technologies. 

CCPI Round 3 specifically targets advanced coal-based systems and subsystems that capture or separate carbon dioxide for sequestration or beneficial reuse.  Round 3 is also open to any coal-based advanced carbon capture technologies that result in co-benefits with respect to efficiency, environmental, or economic improvements potentially capable of achieving CCPI coal technology performance levels specified in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. 

DOE is interested in demonstrating advanced technologies not currently deployed in the marketplace, as opposed to new applications or marginal improvements of existing technologies, and more specifically, technologies capable of producing electricity in any combination with heat, fuels, chemicals, hydrogen or other useful by-products. 

Prospective projects must ensure that coal is used for at least 75 percent of the fuel energy input to the process, while electricity is at least 50 percent of the energy-equivalent output from the technology demonstrated. 

Currently, DOE is developing large scale geologic sequestration field tests on the order of one million metric tons of CO2 per year.  The Department is specifically interested in industry input on the best way to structure Round 3 to allow demonstration projects under CCPI to integrate with ongoing sequestration field tests, which may already be fully operational by the time the new CCPI projects come on-line.  For example, an attempt could be made to integrate a CCPI project with a sequestration field test to supply lower-cost CO2, and reduce the cost of either or both projects.  This would require careful cooperation or integration of the management of both projects. 

- End of Techline 

For more information, contact: Mike Jacobs, FE Office of Communications, 202-586-0507