Publications: GHG Reduction Technologies Monitor

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/30/2015 The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory announced this week the availability of a total of approximately $43 million in funding for lab- and bench-scale pre- and post-combustion carbon capture technologies. The funding includes $28 million for post-combustion carbon capture technology and $15 million for pre-combustion. “The […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/30/2015 The European Union is lagging behind when it comes to the deployment of carbon capture and storage, according to a new report commissioned by the European Commission to assess the Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Directive published this week. However, the report suggests several measures, including the adoption of […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/30/2015 The Environmental Protection Agency remains undaunted by threats from Congress to attempt to block the agency’s proposed carbon emissions regulation for existing coal-fired power plants, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said this week during the National Conference and Global Forum on Science, Policy and Environment. “We are using authority that […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/30/2015 John Holdren, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, highlighted this week the importance of the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emissions standards for new and existing coal-fired power plants to meeting the goals of the […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/30/2015 Pilot testing on a new membrane-based carbon capture technology with a potential 90 percent capture rate has begun at the Department of Energy’s Carbon Capture Center in Wilsonville, Ala., DOE announced this week. The project, which will test the Polaris TM Membrane system developed by Membrane Technology and Research […]

GHG Monitor 1/30/2015 IN THE STATES Virginia state lawmaker Ronald Villanueva (R-Virginia Beach) introduced a bill in the Virginia State House of Delegates last week that would require the state to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Under the bill, Virginia would be required to be a full participant in RGGI and all rules […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/23/2015 Leaders from nearly all sectors of the U.S. energy industry spoke in opposition of the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emissions standards for existing coal fired power plants during the United States Energy Association’s 11th Annual State of the Energy Industry Forum this week. The proposed regulations would set […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/23/2015 Carbon dioxide injected into saline aquifers for storage may not react with brine within the aquifers as previously thought, raising efficiency questions, according to a study published this week by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The study sought to discover what chemical interactions take place within the […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/23/2015 A fourth phase of the CO2 Capture Project (CCP), a research collaboration of several major energy companies, will be a reassessment of work done in the first three phases to discover the most cost effective and efficient means of carbon capture, Nigel Jenvey, manager of Carbon Solutions for BP […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/23/2015 President Barack Obama pledged this week to prevent Congress from undoing steps his Administration has taken to combat climate change domestically and internationally. “Over the past six years, we’ve done more than ever to combat climate change, from the way we produce energy, to the way we use it. […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/23/2015 As several of the world’s public and private sector leaders gather this week in Davos, Switzerland, for the 2015 World Economic Forum, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim is calling on those in attendance to take action on the development of a carbon price. “In Davos, pricing carbon will […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/23/2015 A group of four European utility companies are pulling out of the Zero Emissions Platform (ZEP), an advisory group to the European Commission on carbon capture and storage, because of concerns over the cost of the technology. The utilities, Germany’s RWE AG, France’s Electricite de France, Sweden’s Vattenfall AB […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/23/2015 An effort to incorporate carbon capture and storage technology in a set of industrial facilities in the area of Teesside in the United Kingdom officially got underway this week with an event at the British Parliament’s  House of Commons. The project, which has been branded the Teesside Collective, aims […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/16/2015 At the close of the second year of California’s cap-and-trade program, the effects of the program have been largely positive, disproving claims made by opponents of the program at its onset, according to Katherine Hsia-Kiung, lead author of a new report from the Environmental Defense Fund. In remarks this […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/16/2015 Researchers at Rice University, expanding on research conducted last year, have developed low-cost asphalt with the potential to capture carbon at natural gas wellheads. Last year’s research resulted in the development of a new material, a nanoporous solid of carbon with nitrogen or sulfur, and building on that research, […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/16/2015 Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D. – R.I.) and Joe Manchin (D – W.V.) called on the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency this week to support advancements in carbon capture and utilization. “Companies and research institutions across the country, including innovators in Rhode Island and West Virginia, are […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/16/2015 The eventual retrofit of all three of NRG Energy’s Gulf Coast coal plants with carbon capture and storage technology is a possibility, NRG President and CEO David Crane said during an investors event this week. While Crane made clear that he was not making a commitment to do so, […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/16/2015 The treatment of natural gas electricity generation with carbon capture and enhanced oil recovery under California’s cap-and-trade program is uncertain, presenting a key obstacle to the deployment of that approach, according to a report released late last week by the California Council on Science on Technology. “The current regulatory […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/16/2015 Pilot-scale testing of a new carbon capture solvent, developed by The Linde Group and chemical company BASF, is now underway at the National Carbon Capture Center in Wilsonville, Ala., through a cooperative agreement with the National Energy Technology Laboratory. The testing is being done on a nominal 1-megawatt electric […]

GHG Monitor 1/16/2015 IN THE INDUSTRY Boundary Dam, the first of its kind post-combustion coal-fired carbon capture and sequestration facility, has been named coal “Project of the Year” by Power Engineering and Renewable Energy World Magazines. The project, owned by SaskPower, is located in Saskatchewan, Canada, and is estimated to capture 90 percent of the […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/9/2015 The Department of Energy is making available $125 million in funding for innovative clean energy technologies, including carbon capture and storage, through the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) program, Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz announced this week. “We’re going to put out $125 million for new, novel […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/9/2015 Even if carbon capture and storage technology is deployed by 2025, the United States would need to burn less than 10 percent of its known coal reserves if the world is to stay below the globally agreed upon two degree limit in global warming, according to a new study […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/9/2015 With fossil fuels set to remain a major factor in power generation for the foreseeable future, industry is best equipped to answer the call for lower emissions through innovation, not government mandate, American Petroleum Institute President Jack Gerard said during API’s annual State of American Energy event this week. […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/9/2015 The presence of silicate-rich rock in reservoirs to be used for carbon dioxide storage could hinder the flow of the substance, lowering the efficiency of the process and perhaps increasing the risk of leakage, according to a new study published late last month in Nature Communications. Because of the […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/9/2015 The Illinois Basin-Decatur Project, led by the Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium and the Department of Energy’s Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships, has officially stored 1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide roughly 7,000 feet underground into the Mount Simon geologic formation, DOE announced this week. “This milestone is an important […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 1/9/2015 As the Environmental Protection Agency pushes back the finalization of new carbon emissions standards for new, modified and existing coal-fired power plants, the EPA is facing increased criticism over its use of the Kemper County Energy Facility to help demonstrate the viability of using carbon capture and storage as […]