(25c) The SECARB Anthropogenic Test: The First U.S. Integrated Capture, Transportation and Storage Test

THE SECARB ANTHROPOGENIC TEST: 

The First U.S. Integrated Capture, Transportation and
Storage Test

George Koperna, Jr .Advanced Resources International,
Arlington, VA

and

Vello Kuuskraa and
David Riestenberg, Advanced Resources International, Arlington, VA

Richard Rhudy and Robert Trautz, Electric Power
Research Institute, Palo Alto, CA

Dr. Jerry Hill, Southern States Energy Board, Norcross, GA

Dr. Richard Esposito, Southern Company, Birmingham, AL

Introduction

            The
United States Department of Energy (DOE) seeks to validate the feasibility of
injecting, storing and monitoring CO₂ in the Earth's subsurface
(geologic sequestration) in the near-term as an approach to mitigate
atmospheric emissions of CO₂.   In an effort to ?promote the
development of a framework and the infrastructure necessary for the validation
and deployment of carbon sequestration technologies,? DOE established seven
regional carbon sequestration partnerships (RCSPs), representing 40 States, 3
Indian Nations, 4 Canadian Provinces and over 150 organizations.  The Southeast
Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (SECARB), whose lead organization is
the Southern States Energy Board (SSEB), represents 13 States within the south
eastern United States of America (USA), and includes the core operating area of
Southern Company (Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and the Florida Panhandle; Figure
1).

                In the southeastern USA, Advanced Resources
International (ARI), in partnership with the SSEB, the Electric Power Research
Institute (EPRI), and Southern Company, is participating in the DOE-RCSP
Program, representing the SECARB.  As a first field demonstration in this
program, a 3,000 tonne pilot CO₂ injection into a saline reservoir
was performed in 2008 at Mississippi Power Company's Plant Daniel generation
facility, located in southeast Mississippi.  This project enabled the project
team to gain valuable experience with site characterization, permitting,
outreach and education, and the injection and monitoring of CO₂ into
a saline reservoir.

            Two
SECARB Phase III projects are now underway, the first being the Early Test,
which is a large volume injection test utilizing natural CO₂ (associated
with an enhanced-oil-recovery flood) located at the Cranfield oilfield in
Mississippi. The second SECARB Phase III project (the Anthropogenic Test),
which is the focus of this paper, is a demonstration of integrated deployment
of CO₂ capture, transport, and geologic storage technology for an
existing pulverized coal-fired power plant. 

             Anthropogenic
Test is an integral component of a plan by Atlanta-based Southern Company, and
its subsidiary, Birmingham-based Alabama Power to demonstrate CO₂ capture,
transport and storage technology.  The capture component of the test takes
place at the James M. Barry Electric Generating Plant (Plant Barry) in Bucks, Alabama. The capture facility, equivalent to 25 MW, will utilize post-combustion capture
technology licensed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America.  CO₂ emissions
captured at the plant will be transported by pipeline for underground storage
in a deep, saline geologic formation within the Citronelle Dome located in Mobile County, Alabama (Figure 1). 

            Starting
in July 2011, up to 500 tonnes of CO₂ per day will be captured and
transported over ten miles to the storage site for injection and subsurface
storage.  These transportation and injection operations will continue through
2014, with subsurface monitoring deployed through 2017 in order to track plume
movement in the deep subsurface.  This project will be one of the first and the
largest fully-integrated coal-fired CCS projects in the USA.  This paper will discuss the results to date, including permitting efforts, geologic data
collection and analysis as well as detailed reservoir modeling of the storage
site, framing the discussion in terms of the overall goals of the project.