Carbon Capture
Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from coal-fired power plants and other industrial facilities need to be reduced to meet climate goals. Current carbon capture technologies are energy intensive and nearly double the cost of generating electricity. U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) has set a goal of developing a technology that can remove 90% of the CO2 released from coal combustion with a 30% lower cost of electricity than the current benchmark approaches.
The U.S. and, in particular, Illinois still have many coal-fired power plants. Coal still remains an attractive low cost option for power plants when compared to natural gas and other fossil fuels (Figures 1 & 2).
To help the U.S. meet its climate goals, ISTC and its sister survey the Illinois State Geological Survey, both a part of the Prairie Research Institute, are investigating carbon capture methods at not only the lab scale but also at large pilot scale.
Figure 1: Natural Gas vs. Coal Prices (data from U.S. Energy Information Administration [EIA]).
Figure 2: U.S. Electricity generation by fuel in Reference case, 2000-2040 (source: EIA Annual Energy Outlook 2015).