GTI and Partners Selected by DOE-NETL for $16.25 Million Project Award to Advance Carbon Capture Technology

GTI and partners, The Ohio State University, Wyoming Integrated Test Center (ITC), and Trimeric Corporation (Trimeric), have been selected for award on a project to advance Ohio State’s transformational membrane technology to provide step-out reductions in CO2 capture cost and energy penalties. The U.S. Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory (DOE-NETL) is expected to provide $13 million in funding for the $16.25 million project, with partners contributing the additional financial support. The team will fabricate the membrane and membrane modules, design and build an engineering-scale CO2 capture system, conduct tests on coal flue gas, and gather data for further process scale-up.

Capturing CO2 from power production and other industrial sources is a key to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and plays an integral role in the transition towards a more decarbonized energy system. Performing engineering scale studies and maturing CO2 capture technologies is critical to move them to the market and into utility and industrial use at new and existing facilities. Ultimately such transformational technologies will enable the transition to affordable cleaner energy.

The project, Engineering Scale Design and Testing of Transformational Membrane Technology for CO2 Capture, will advance Ohio State’s patented membrane technology from highly successful bench-scale DOE projects for the development of CO2 selective membranes. It seeks to achieve DOE’s Transformational Carbon Capture performance goal of CO2 capture with 95% CO2 purity at a cost of $30/tonne or less.

GTI and Ohio State will jointly lead the project, overseeing design and testing of the CO2 capture system. By employing a facilitated transport mechanism for CO2 separation, the membrane can achieve high selectivity and high permeance for CO2 separation from flue gas, resulting in the potential for low capture cost.

The integrated capture system will be tested on coal flue gas at the ITC to demonstrate continuous, steady-state operation for a minimum of two months to generate the data necessary for further process scale-up. Techno-economic analysis will be performed by Trimeric to quantify performance and economics and verify achievement of the DOE’s cost and performance targets. This project seeks to advance the technology from current Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5 to TRL 6, validating an engineering-scale prototypical system in a relevant environment.

“The right partnerships are critical to support key technology initiatives and bring high-impact results to market, and our project team will leverage each partner’s unique expertise with the combined technical capabilities, facilities, and funding to advance decarbonization solutions,” says Don Stevenson, Vice President, GTI Energy Supply and Conversion.

He continues, “This project will build on transformational membrane technology from Ohio State with GTI’s extensive experience in energy technology commercialization and the design of engineering- and demonstration-scale carbon capture and utilization systems. Testing the system in real-world conditions of a functional coal-fired power plant at the ITC will provide important insights to validate the system in a relevant environment. This will represent a major step up in the technology’s readiness to reduce CO2 emissions from power production and provide clean and secure energy for the industrial sector as energy systems transition.”