The new 1 MW_th facility will test oxy-fired pressurized fluidized bed combustion (oxy-PFBC) as a means to capture CO₂ more efficiently and economically and to help advance the commercialization of carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) in the US as well as Canada.

Successful results from this project will help scale up the oxy-PFBC process to commercial scale.

Oxy-PFBC is based on the oxy-fuel combustion process, which uses pure oxygen instead of air to burn fuel and produces heat that generates electricity without the production of other pollutants. The oxy-PFCB process improves the efficiency of this process by concentrating the CO₂ produced prior to combustion of fuel in the turbine, thereby greatly reducing the cost of capturing the CO₂. The captured CO₂ can then be stored or used beneficially to develop other products, including feedstock and chemicals.

The test plant is an ongoing collaborative project between DOE and NRCan, and its research and development lab, CanmetEnergy. The project is being led by the Gas Technology Institute (GTI) in partnership with the Linde Group, the Electric Power Research Institute, Alstom Power and Alberta Innovates. The project received $13 million under DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy’s advanced combustion program, and is managed by the Department’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL).

The oxy-PFBC project is part of the continuing collaboration between the US and Canada on clean energy technologies, including CCUS.