NetPower Visit

 As part of the Mission Innovation CCUS workshop in Houston, we visited the Net Power project at La Porte. This is a pilot-scale demonstration of a novel direct-fired oxy-fired supercritical-CO₂ gas turbine based on the Allam Cycle. In fact Rodney Allam himself was present and co-hosted the visit with Bill Brown the CEO of Net Power. The partners in this project are 8 Rivers, Exelon, and CB&I. We learned that the combustion chamber is scaled at 50 MWth, and the turbine at 200 MWth and it is a first-of-a-kind by Toshiba. The inputs will be mostly CO₂, some O₂ and a small amount of CH₄. A significant feature is the recycling of heat and CO₂, and the production of water (when air-cooled), N₂, Argon and CO₂. The result is hoped to be an economical gas turbine with low cost electricity and a high-pressure supercritical CO₂stream output ready for pipeline transmission. The pilot project is at an advanced stage of construction. The expectation is testing of the combustion chamber in Q4 2017, and full operation in Q1 2018 with grid connection. The O₂ and CO₂ is supplied by Air Liquide nearby. The next phase will then be a 500MWth scale up of the turbine, and no scale up required for the combustors, and engineering design is underway. If successful, the technology offers a number of advantages over conventional plant: inherent CO₂ capture, no NO_x emissions, smaller physical footprint and low water usage. We will watch the testing developments later this year with great interest and wish them good luck. Many thanks for an interesting visit.