On the idea of retrofitting old coal plants to capture CO2

From IEEE Spectrum:

“The Milton R. Young Station, close to the town of Center in North Dakota, is as unremarkable as coal-fired power plants come. But if its owner Minnkota Power Cooperative has its way, the plant could soon be famous the world over.

“The Grand Forks-based electric cooperative has launched Project Tundra, an initiative to build the largest power plant-based carbon capture facility in the world, with construction commencing as early as 2022. If Minnkota Power raises the US $1 billion the project requires, it plans to retrofit the station with technology the cooperative claims will capture more than 90 percent of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted from the plant’s larger generator, a 455-megawatt unit. The effect will be the equivalent of taking 600,000 gasoline-fueled cars off the road.”

Okaaaaaaaay…

In a perfect world, you could extract coal (without emitting CO2 somehow), burn it in a coal plant, produce electricity, and capture all the CO2 emitted.

However:

  • extracting coal using machinery/trucks/etc. still emits CO2 in 2020.

  • capturing CO2 emissions from a coal plant requires energy. You get this from burning the coal itself.

About that…

“A coal plant that is coupled with CCS technology may actually be more expensive to run because of an increase in parasitic load, he says. A coal plant uses between five and nine percent of the electricity it generates to run the equipment it needs to operate. But adding carbon capture, an energy- and water-intensive process, pushes this parasitic load up to much as 33 percent.”

And…

“According to IEEFA estimates, that more than triples the cost of electricity generated at a coal plant, from $30 to $96 per megawatt hour (MW/h). As a result, coal becomes even less competitive against solar and wind-generated electricity, which can be purchased today for as low as $35 and $21 MW/h respectively.”

Plus, that billion bucks has to come from somewhere.

This is never going to happen. But they’ll no doubt drag it out for years.