As of September 30, 2016, the Carbon Capture and Sequestration Technologies program at MIT has closed. The website is being kept online as a reference but will not be updated.

Pleasant Prairie Fact Sheet: Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage Project

Company/Alliance: Alstom, Electric Power research Institute (EPRI) and We Energies

Location: Pleasant Prairie, Milwaukee, US

Feedstock: Coal

Process: Pulverized Coal (PC) boiler combusting low-sulphur, sub-bituminous coal

Size: 5 MW slip stream: 15,000 tons/yr CO2

Capture Technology: Post-combustion with chilled ammonia

CO2 Fate: Vented to the atmosphere

Timing: Pilot operation (2008): Testing was completed in October 2009 after logging over 7,000 hours of operations

Scale Up: None

Motivation/Economics:

The project is a combined ten-year effort with the US Department of Energy’s (DOE). The DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy contributed $7.2 million while Alstom and AEP contributed $1.4 million for the initial phases of the project.

Comments:

The pilot project in West Virginia is planned to operate for 12 to 18 months. The project ran over 4,600 hours continuously without issue and captured some 18,000 tons of CO2 in 2009. It has successfully proven to capture over 88% of emitted CO2. The progress report demonstrates that Alstom has been successful in capturing more than 90% CO2.

Project Link: AEP Pleasant Prairie Progress Report [PDF] (October 2009)

Other Sources and Press Releases:
Alstom press release on Pleasant Prairie preliminary data success (May 2009)