Innovation & Infrastructure

The National Nuclear Security Administration said Monday it has migrated all up-to-date data on the buildings at its eight sites to the BUILDER system, which it called a “cutting-edge infrastructure management took” backed by the National Academy of Sciences. The system, developed by the Pentagon and owned by the federal government, “will provide greater consistency […]

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has launched an investigation into the “estimated costs and expected in-service date” of the Kemper County Energy Facility carbon capture and storage project, owner Southern Co. revealed in a May 5 filing with the commission. “Southern Company and [subsidiary] Mississippi Power believe the investigation is focused primarily on periods […]

Despite a major makeover in plans for the Uranium Processing Facility, which has been scaled down and supplemented with the use of existing facilities, the National Nuclear Security Administration has determined it doesn’t need to redo the 2011 site-wide environmental impact statement for the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee – which was the information […]

ExxonMobil has signed on to support the development of FuelCell Energy’s carbonate fuel cell carbon capture system, the companies said Thursday. “Our scientists saw the potential for this exciting technology for use at natural gas power plants to enhance the viability of carbon capture and sequestration while at the same time generating additional electricity. We […]

The University of Kentucky announced Wednesday that its Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER) has received a $2.4 million five-year extension to its U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center grant. “CAER is a global leader in developing carbon capture and storage technologies,” UK President Eli Capilouto said in a release. “This grant will help advance promising […]

Energy ministers and other high-level delegates from more than 20 nations and the European Commission will meet June 1-2 in San Francisco for the first Mission Innovation Ministerial since the project was launched at the Paris climate change negotiations in December. U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz will host the event, which will feature energy and […]

The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday denied five motions to reconsider its New Source Performance Standards. The rule, finalized last fall alongside the slightly more controversial Clean Power Plan, essentially mandates the use of carbon capture technology on any new-build coal-fired power plant. The rule’s critics argue that carbon capture and storage is not adequately […]

The Boundary Dam Unit 3 Integrated Carbon Capture and Storage Project in Saskatchewan has been performing “exceedingly well” since an overhaul last fall, SaskPower CEO Mike Marsh told the editorial board of the Regina Leader-Post in a recently published Q&A. “We’re very happy with the performance of the plant. We’re achieving our production targets for […]

The Department of Energy has invested millions in Summit Power Group’s Texas Clean Energy Project, but the initiative’s chances seem to be fading, and DOE should be cautious about further dealings with the project, according to the DOE Inspector General’s Office. “Due to Summit’s inability to obtain the required commercial debt and equity project financing […]

Construction formally began Wednesday on Wyoming’s Integrated Test Center, a $21 million facility for research on carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration technology. The facility, to be built at the Basin Electric Power Cooperative’s Dry Fork Station near the city of Gillette, is due for completion in summer 2017. The first research teams will be finalists in a current carbon […]

Electric utility Mississippi Power said this week that the price tag for construction of its Kemper County Energy Facility carbon capture and storage project had climbed by another $35 million as of March. The new-build, post-combustion CCS facility in total is now expected to cost over $6.72 billion, the company said in a monthly filing […]

The Department of Energy said Tuesday that a new method for advancing power plant turbine efficiency could augment carbon capture operations from such facilities and thus reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The DOE National Energy Technology Laboratory’s Small Business Technology Transfer program has sponsored the research by HiFunda LLC and the University of Connecticut. At issue […]

Ohio Valley University, of Vienna, W.Va., said last week that it would by late 2018 open a commercial-scale facility that each day could use 600 tons of coal as the central feedstock for producing mixed alcohols such as ethanol and methanol, along with other “energy-related byproducts.” The Alternative Clean Energy (ACE) facility would use a number […]

A European Commission grant program has provided the LEILAC consortium with a five-year, 12 million-euros grant for development and demonstration of a new carbon capture technology. The consortium – the acronym stands for Low Emissions Intensity Lime And Cement — is led by technology company Calix and includes Heidelberg Cement, Amec Foster Wheeler, Imperial College, […]

Advances in carbon capture, utilization, and storage technology will be key to carrying out the Paris Agreement’s goals of curbing greenhouse gas emissions and global warming, four nongovernmental organizations said on Friday. On Friday, 174 nations and the European Union signed the climate change accord, which will come into force upon ratification by at least […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration confirmed that it is looking at ways to carry out repairs at the Y-12 National Security Complex’s Building 9204-2, also known as Beta-2, which houses the Tennessee site’s nuclear weapons operations with lithium. But there’s still plenty of mystery about the plans for work in the crowded production complex inside […]

U.S. SHINE Medical Technologies, which recently won federal approval to build a medical isotope facility in Wisconsin, announced this week the successful operation of an accelerator-based neutron generator for 132 consecutive hours with greater than 97 percent uptime. The test run, which was completed March 14-19 in Wisconsin, is an industry first for extended operation […]

The U.K. is well poised to become a carbon capture and storage leader, but the government is squandering that opportunity by not supporting the technology’s development, according to a report issued Wednesday by Scottish Carbon Capture and Storage. “The UK is uniquely well-positioned to develop and benefit from CCS, but windows of opportunity are closing […]

The Australian government has established a $750 million ($1 billion AUS) fund to support emerging clean energy technologies. The Clean Energy Innovation Fund will help technologies transition from the demonstration to commercial deployment stages, the government announced Wednesday. “Clean energy is central to the Government’s strategy to address climate change and meet our emissions reduction […]

SHINE Medical Technologies, which recently won federal approval to build a medical isotope facility in Wisconsin, announced this week the successful operation of an accelerator-based neutron generator for 132 consecutive hours with greater than 97 percent uptime. The test run, which was completed March 14-19 in Wisconsin, is an industry first for extended operation of a […]

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) of Australia will join with AGL Energy, Brown Coal Innovation Australia, and Japan’s IHI Corp. to launch the PICA post-combustion capture research project at the AGL Loy Yang brown coal-fired power station in southeastern Victoria. The two-year project seeks to “examine the energy efficiency of CO2 capture […]

The Department of Energy is accepting applications for its Research Experience in Carbon Sequestration (RECS) program. The program is open to early career professionals, along with doctoral or master’s students, with backgrounds in geology, chemistry, hydrology, physics, engineering, climate science, and related fields. This year’s program is scheduled for June 12-20 in Birmingham, Ala., and […]

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles are 3-D printing concrete made of carbon dioxide, according to an article published by the university last week. The product, CO2NCRETE, is created through a closed-loop process in which CO2 is captured from power plant smokestacks and is then used by the 3-D printers. Thus far, the […]

The Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory offering up to $80 million to establish a 10 MWe scale Supercritical Transformational Electric Power (STEP) facility for evaluating the supercritical CO2 power cycle, according to a March 15 Funding Opportunity Announcement. Supercritical CO2 technology offers potential efficiency and cost-of-electricity (COE) advantages over conventional steam Rankine cycles, […]

Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed a new highly permeable, potentially more efficient, carbon capture membrane, the California facility announced last week. The new membrane is a hybrid – part polymer and part metal-organic –framework. A lab press release says the new membrane is eight times more carbon dioxide-permeable than membranes composed […]

The provincial government of Quebec said Thursday in its 2016-17 budget that it will invest $15 million (CAD) in carbon capture company CO2 Solutions over the next three years. The funding is allocated under the 2015-2020 Government Strategy for Sustainable Development and will be used specifically to “support the creation of a consortium to promote […]

Carnegie Mellon University will offer graduate-level robotics training focused on nuclear waste-handling and disposal jobs, under a new five-year cooperative agreement with the Energy Department worth up to $3 million. The money will provide a fellowship-like training program for up to 20 doctorate- and masters-level robotics students at the Pittsburgh university’s Robotics Institute, plus money […]

The Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory last week released a request for information regarding the potential benefits in testing carbon capture and storage technology for coal-fired generation first on natural gas flue gas. “It is the intent of the DOE [Office of Fossil Energy] National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) to evaluate the opportunities […]

NET Power, a collaboration of Exelon Generation, CB&I, and 8 Rivers Capital, Wednesday announced the groundbreaking of a new first-of-a-kind zero emission natural gas power system demonstration project in la Porte, Texas. The plant will demonstrate NET Power’s new Allam Cycle technology. The new system puts CO2 to work, using it as a fluid to […]

New data released from the South West Hub Carbon Capture and Storage Project in Western Australia will help progress research into the feasibility of CO2 storage in the area, according to a release from the state government. “The data includes drilling reports and wireline logs from three stratigraphic wells drilled into the three distinct fault […]