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.

E.W. Brown Fact Sheet: Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage Project

Company/Alliance: University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research (UKCAER)

Location: Kentucky Utilities Company’s E.W. Brown Generating Station, near Harrodsburg, Kentucky, USA

Feedstock: Coal

Size: 2 MW

Capture Technology: Post-combustion

CO2 Fate: N/A

Timing: Construction started (2014) Complete construction (end 2014)

The project is now on the list of completed projects with no indication of timing or length of operation

Cost: $19.5 million

Scale Up: None

Motivation/Economics:

$14.5 million competitive financial assistance award from the Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology.

The remaining $5 million is being provided from a cost share program by the University of Kentucky, the Kentucky Department of Energy Development and Independence, the Carbon Management Research Group (CMRG), Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, EPRI and others.

Comments:

The 2 MW unit will test a CO2 capture system from the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research (UKCAER) at slipstream-scale. The new system is testing an innovative heat integration method that will utilize waste heat from a carbon capture system for heat integration and will hopefully improve the steam turbine's efficiency.  The process also implements a process concept (working with the heat integration method) that increases the solvent’s CO2 capture rate and capacity in the scrubber. 

The system will use a sampling port to redirect a portion of the power plant’s flue gas just before it enters the stack. The redirected gas will be shunted into modules where it will react with an advanced liquid solvent to extract CO2. The gas stream, now carrying less than 1% CO2, will exit the modules and return to the stack. The liquid solvent, carrying the removed CO2, will be put through a two-stage process to strip the CO2 from the solvent, producing a concentrated stream of CO2. The solvent will then be recycled to the modules to process more flue gas, while waste heat from the carbon-capture system will be recovered in the cooling tower.  This system's integration will improve the power plant’s cooling-tower and steam-turbine efficiency.

The project is part of DOE’s Carbon Capture Program, which is developing technologies for both pre- and post-combustion carbon capture. The DOE awarded the UKCAER $14.5 million in 2011 for a 5 year project. The project is currently listed as completed on the UKCAER website

Project Link: NETL project website: APPLICATION OF A HEAT-INTEGRATED POST-COMBUSTION CO2 CAPTURE SYSTEM WITH HITACHI ADVANCED SOLVENT INTO EXISTING COAL-FIRED POWER PLANT
PROJECT NO.: DE-FE0007395

Other Sources and Press Releases:
UKCAER PDF of completed project: Development of Membrane/Solvent Hybrid Separation Process for Post - combustion CO 2 Capture in Existing Coal - Fired Power Plants
DOE press release on: Construction Begins on DOE-Sponsored Carbon-Capture Project at Kentucky Power Plant (July 2014)
$19.5M Carbon Capture Plant Begins Construction (July 2014)
UK Researchers Get $3 Million to Develop Carbon-capture Technology (October 2013)