DOE/NETL anticipates that U.S. coal-fired power plants will eventually be required to control their CO₂ emissions in order to address concerns with global climate change.  DOE/NETL systems analysis studies show that currently available CO₂ capture technologies are expensive and energy-intensive, which would seriously degrade the overall efficiency of both new and existing coal-fired power plants. These studies indicate that installing the current state-of-the-art post-combustion CO₂ capture technology (first-generation) - chemical absorption with an aqueous monoethanolamine (MEA) solution – is estimated to increase the levelized cost of energy (COE) services by about 80 percent.  Therefore, DOE/NETL believes it is important to develop new advanced CO₂ capture technologies in order to maintain the cost-effectiveness of U.S. coal-fired power generation.

DOE/NETL’s Existing Plants, Emissions and Capture (EPEC) program is conducting research to develop advanced CO₂ capture technologies (second-generation). The program goal is to develop post- and oxy-combustion CO₂ capture technologies for new and existing coal-fired power plants that achieve 90 percent CO₂ capture at less than a 35 percent increase in COE. As illustrated in the figure below, bench and small pilot-scale (less than 5 MW) research on second-generation technologies is currently underway. This will be followed by 5 to 25 MW pilot-scale field testing designed to ready the most successful of these technologies for integrated full-scale demonstrations by 2020, with commercial deployment anticipated by 2030.

U.S. DOE NETL Carbon Capture R&D Effort Timeline