Tech, Dominion propose carbon-capture project

A demonstration project to remove carbon dioxide from coal-fired smokestack emissions has been proposed for a controversial power plant under construction in far Southwest Virginia.

The Virginia Tech Center for Coal and Energy Research and Dominion Virginia Power announced plans yesterday to establish a $580 million carbon-capture demonstration at Dominion Virginia Power's Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center in Wise County.

A coalition led by the Virginia Tech center has applied for federal stimulus money to offset as much as half of the cost.

"This is something a lot of people are working on -- getting carbon dioxide out of the emissions stream and addressing concerns about CO2," Dominion Virginia Power spokesman Greg Edwards said in an interview yesterday. "We're excited to be part of it."

Under the plan, as much as 1,500 tons of carbon dioxide would be removed from the power plant's emissions each day, converted into a liquid, transported as far as 25 miles by underground pipeline to other sites and stored underground in saline formations and "thin" coal seams that can't be mined.

The coalition, which includes Virginia Tech, Dominion Virginia Power, the Southern States Energy Board and others, has applied for funding from the U.S. Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory, under the federal recovery act's clean coal power initiative.

Federal officials are expected to review the funding request by November and, if approved, planning could begin by mid-2010, Edwards said. Work could begin on the carbon-capture demonstration by 2013 and be completed by 2015, he added.

Neither Edwards nor Virginia Tech officials would speculate about the project's future if the funding request is denied.

"This project will be a significant step forward in funding a viable means of controlling carbon emissions from power stations," Michael Karmis, a Virginia Tech professor who is director of the Center for Coal and Energy Research, said in a statement. "We are fortunate that Virginia has an advanced power plant and suitable injection sites in close proximity."

Nino Ripepi, a research associate with the research center, said there are no comparable projects.

"Capture is being done, but nothing has been done at this scale," Ripepi said in a phone interview. "And injecting the liquid, nothing has been done to this extent." The identified underground storage areas represent "thousands of years" of capacity, Ripepi said.

Virginia Tech is conducting smaller-scale carbon storage experiments in Russell County.

"The carbon storage trials show a lot of promise," Edwards said. "They have been able to sequester about 95 percent of the carbon."

One goal of the project is to remove and capture a minimum of 90 percent of carbondioxide emissions.

The project could also produce substantial amounts of coal-bed methane, a form of natural gas that can be used as an energy source.

The demonstration project would create 36 full-time jobs, while the Virginia City power plant is expected to employ about 80. The power plant is scheduled to begin operations in 2012.

The 585-megawatt plant is designed to burn coal, waste coal and biomass. A number of environmental groups have opposed it, claiming it will further pollute the region's environment.

Earlier this month, a circuit court judge in Richmond ruled that one of two air permits issued for the plant is invalid. However, company officials said they expect the permit matter to be resolved so the plant can be completed on schedule.

David McGee is a staff writer at the Herald Courier in Bristol.