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AEP’s Carbon Capture and Sequestration Project: Past, Present and Future

Indrajit Bhattacharya and Gary O. Spitznogle
American Electric Power, Columbus, Ohio, [email protected], [email protected]

AEP has been on the forefront of Carbon Capture and Sequestration technology development and demonstration. Most of our efforts on CCS focused on work at the Mountaineer plant located in New Haven, West Virginia. First geologic field activity commenced in 2003, followed by construction and operation of a pilot scale (20MW) capture plant (PVF project) with nearly 40,000 tonnes of deep saline CO2 sequestration. The successful operation of this facility from late 2009 to May 2010 was also the basis for a Front End Engineering Design (FEED) study for a commercial scale (235 MW) carbon capture and sequestration project. The FEED study included the drilling and detailed study of an off-site geologic characterization well. Due to lack of legislative policy and no mechanism for cost recovery, AEP decided to postpone work on the 235MW project. At present AEP is in the post-injection monitoring phase for the PVF project and keeps abreast of the CCS activities worldwide through participation in the Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships and the National Carbon Capture Center. We cannot speculate about the future of CCS in USA or Worldwide at the present time (although EPA announced the New Source Performance Standard), but the sequestration lessons learned at the Mountaineer site were invaluable and provided insight into unique sequestration horizons. This project has given us the knowledge necessary to proceed further with post combustion CCS at a coal fired plant when the requirement arises.

 

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90154©2012 AAPG Eastern Section Meeting, Cleveland, Ohio, 22-26 September 2012