In 2009, the first fully integrated carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and storage (CCS) technology validation project began operation at AEP’s Mountaineer Plant in West Virginia.

Now, AEP and its partners are pursuing a new project that will demonstrate those technologies at commercial scale.

AEP relies on coal to fuel approximately 66 percent of its installed generating capacity. Coal is an abundantly-available, domestic and economical fuel that will continue to be a significant component of America’s energy mix. Because AEP is one of the largest consumers of coal in the western hemisphere, our company also is one of the largest sources of CO2 emissions.

AEP is a leader in the advancement and application of technologies, such as CCS, that will enable us to continue to rely on coal while reducing its environmental impact.

The Mountaineer Plant CCS projects employ Alstom’s patented chilled ammonia process for post-combustion CO2 capture. The process uses ammonium carbonate to absorb CO2. The resulting ammonium bicarbonate is converted back to ammonium carbonate in a regenerator and is reused to repeat the process. The flue gas, cleaned of CO2, flows back to the stack and the captured CO2 is sent for storage.

Once captured, the CO2 is compressed into a liquid-like state and is injected into rock layers approximately 1.5 miles beneath the surface. Monitoring wells help verify and evaluate the conditions in the storage layers as CO2 is injected. Cap rock keeps the CO2 from moving upward.

In late 2009, AEP and technology provider Alstom began operating the technology validation project to capture and store approximately 100,000 metric tons of CO2 per year. The project strives to remove 90 percent of the CO2 from a 20 megawatt electric (MWe) portion of the plant’s flue gas.

AEP and partners, including the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), now are working to bring the chilled ammonia process for CO2 capture and geologic CO2 storage technologies to commercial scale.

U.S. DOE has awarded AEP funding for 50 percent of the cost, up to $334 million, of building a commercial-scale CCS installation at Mountaineer. The project, operational in 2015, will capture and store approximately 1.5 million metric tons of CO2 per year. It is intended to remove up to 90 percent of the CO2 from a 235 MWe portion of the power plant’s flue gas.

This project is part of a controlled progression of activities to verify technology and manage risk along the road to commercialization of post-combustion CCS technology. Other previous activities included a DOE-funded site characterization study at Mountaineer Plant in the 2002 – 2003 timeframe to determine the suitability of the local geology for underground CO2 storage, and a small-scale chilled ammonia process demonstration project in Wisconsin.