Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Department of Energy on Tuesday announced up to $26 million in financial assistance for cost-shared research and development projects focused on carbon capture technologies for coal and gas generation.
- Projects will focus on two major areas: research developing and validating transformational materials and capture processes, and support for research addressing issues associated with advanced carbon capture technologies.
- DOE may select up to 14 projects, which will be managed by the National Energy Technology Laboratory.
Dive Insight:
DOE's "Novel and Enabling Carbon Capture Transformational Technologies" funding opportunity announcement comes (FOA) just six weeks after the Office of Fossil Energy earmarked $50 million for pilot projects developing "transformational coal technologies." The most recent FOA is more broadly focused, to include natural gas, and highlights the Trump administration's efforts to support fossil fuels.
Responses to the FOA are due Nov. 22.
According to the announcement, the objective "is to research, develop, and validate carbon dioxide capture transformational materials, processes, and enabling technologies at bench scale for pulverized coal or natural gas fired power plants that enable step change reductions in current CO2 capture cost and energy penalties in support of DOE’s Carbon Capture Program goal."
In the materials and processes area, DOE said projects could include novel water-lean solvents and other materials that can increase CO2 absorption performance and economics. The agency will also consider projects focused on advanced membranes or hybrid materials and processes that can be tested on natural gas and/or coal-fired flue gas.
Selected projects aimed at developing enabling technologies will address issues associated with advanced carbon capture technologies. DOE believes that by developing enabling technologies, "overall improvement in carbon capture systems that is or is not specific to any one technology developer might be realized."
In keeping with his campaign promises, President Trump has been working on several fronts to boost fossil fuel production and generation, with a particular focus on coal. In addition to millions in research, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has moved to rescind the Clean Power Plan, and the DOE has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking calling for power market changes to place additional value on coal's contribution to the reliability and resiliency of the U.S. power grid.
