A power plant in Western Canada is showcasing carbon capture technology that can first be deployed at a coal-fired facility, and then adjusted to accept flue gas from a natural gas-fired system without the need for a plant rebuild. The technology is designed to facilitate the transition to natural gas-fired generation at plants making a switch from coal to gas.
The technology, developed by Delta CleanTech, could enable coal plants to implement carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) to reduce emissions, and the CCS system could continue to operate after a plant switches to burn natural gas. The project is underway at Capital Power’s Genesee Generating Station located west of Edmonton, near Warburg, Alberta, as part of a larger Capital Power initiative to reduce the utility’s carbon footprint. Capital Power, which owns more than 64 GW of generation capacity at 26 facilities across North America, is repowering the coal-fired Units 1 and 2 (Figure 1) at Genesee to utilize natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) technology, while adding Delta CleanTech’s CCS system.
Unit 3 at Genesee, another coal-fired unit, is undergoing a dual-fuel transition and will be 100% gas-fueled in 2023. The plant’s three units have more than 1,300 MW of generation capacity. Capital said the Genesee project is part of its effort “to advance the commercialization of carbon capture, utilization and sequestration (CCUS) technology,” and the utility said it plans “to integrate direct air capture (DAC) into our portfolio of decarbonization technologies to further reduce emissions.” Capital is part of the Carbon Capture Coalition, a collaboration of dozens of businesses and organizations building government policies “to enable economywide, commercial scale deployment of carbon capture technologies, which includes carbon capture, removal, transport, utilization, and storage from industrial facilities, power plants, and ambient air.” The utility also participates in the Canadian Carbon Capture Collaborative.
“The importance of a Genesee-style project is that it reflects the flexibility of new CO2 [carbon dioxide] capture technology that can be installed for coal combustion and later adapted for natural gas combustion,” said Lionel Kambeitz, executive chairman of Calgary, Alberta–based Delta CleanTech. Kambeitz told POWER, “Many plants around the world are contemplating switching from coal to natural gas, but do not want to delay the opportunity for Delta’s CO2 capture technology to be installed today. Delta CleanTech has had an unprecedented demand for CO2 capture plants in Alberta on decentralized power generation projects, whereby power is being produced with off-market natural gas and the power can be supplied to the grid at peak demand with the ancillary power being utilized to drive data miners for the production of bitcoin. These Delta projects are proving to deliver the low cost of power required for cost-effective bitcoin mining while also decarbonizing the electricity that is required.”
Decarbonization is part of the equation for such projects; Kate Chisholm, senior vice president, Planning, Stakeholder Relations, and Chief Sustainability Officer for Capital Power, earlier this year said, “It’s our responsibility to do our part to help society meet the long-term challenges facing our planet. We have a long history of saying what we’ll do, then doing what we say—and our actions to move off coal, invest in hydrogen- and CCUS readiness, and invest in a sustainable energy future for Canada demonstrate just that.”
Delta CleanTech’s role in the Genesee project comes after the company’s participation in Canada’s Carbon XPRIZE competition, designed to develop “breakthrough technologies to convert CO2 emissions into usable products.” Delta CleanTech supplied the CO2 for use in the competition.