AEP seeking stimulus money for pollution controls - Business First of Columbus:

AEP seeking stimulus money for pollution controls - Business First of Columbus:

American Electric Power Company Inc. will seek $334 million in federal stimulus funding to cover part of the cost of installing a carbon dioxide capture-and-storage system at its power plant in New Haven, W.Va., along the Ohio River.
The funding is from the U.S. Department of Energy’s clean-coal power initiative, the Columbus-based company said in a release Thursday.
AEP is calling the system, which involves capturing carbon dioxide emissions and injecting them underground, the first commercial-scale operation of its kind in the nation. The company said the $334 million would cover about half the estimated cost of installing the system at the coal-fired power plant. It will use a chilled ammonia process to capture at least 90 percent of the carbon dioxide from 235 megawatts of the plant’s 1,300 megawatts of electric capacity.
The captured carbon dioxide, approximately 1.5 million metric tons per year, will be treated and compressed, then injected into suitable geologic formations for permanent storage approximately 1.5 miles below the surface, AEP said.
The system will begin commercial operation in 2015, according to the company’s application for funding.
“Commercialization of carbon capture and storage technology is an essential component in a successful climate strategy for this nation,” AEP CEO Michael Morris said in the release. “Coal is a low-cost, abundant domestic fuel source, but its use is a significant source of carbon dioxide emissions.”
AEP said it is forming a diverse technical advisory committee for the West Virginia project, including experts in the field of geologic carbon dioxide storage. This group will include Battelle, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ohio State University, West Virginia University, University of Texas, Ohio Geological Survey, Consol Energy and West Virginia Department of Commerce.
Schlumberger Ltd., an international company based in Paris, will work with AEP to design and deploy the carbon dioxide storage system at the Mountaineer plant. AEP also said it will begin operating a smaller-scale validation of the technology in September at Mountaineer. No federal funds are being used for that project.