Calpine opens carbon capture demonstration project in California

• 9 months ago (2023-07-18)
• David Flin

Emissions 58 Gas 372 North America 998

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Calpine has opened a carbon capture demonstration pilot project at its 500 MW Los Medanos Energy Centre CCGT in Pittsburg, California, USA.

The project will make use of a chemical solvent developed by ION Clean Energy that will bind with CO2 in the plant’s flue gas, essentially trapping it and preventing its release into the environment. ION claims its process is both more effective and cheaper that previous carbon capture tools. The initiative was funded in part with a $19 million Federal grant. Officials expect the technology to capture up to 95 per cent of carbon emissions while producing power.

Andrew Awtry, Vice President of Engineering for ION Clean Energy, said that the operational test period at Los Medanos could take 13-15 months.

Thad Hill, CEO of Calpine, said: “This pilot will help facilitate the energy transition by allowing us to test and come up with the most effective way to decarbonise modern combined cycle flexible natural gas plants. We’re pursuing projects at a number of our sites across the country. Our goal is to be the leader in carbon capture and sequestration for power plants in this country.”