CO2-Locate was developed by the Energy Department’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) and provides a national well database that integrates data from class II (oil and gas) wells across the country to help inform class VI (carbon capture and sequestration) needs.

The database also provides summary spatio-temporal statistics and insights into potential opportunities and risks and includes a web map. The platform’s analytics are intended to give researchers a better understanding of the age, total vertical depth and status of wells across the country.

“As a dynamic database, CO2-Locate will support future automatic updates, capturing changes among data and new data from the original disparate sources,” said NETL’s Jennifer Bauer, the project’s principal investigator and member of NETL’s Science-based Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Institute (SAMI). 

By using CO2-Locate, project managers, researchers, and industry stakeholders are expected to be able to access data that might reduce risk and uncertainties while saving time and helping to reduce costs, making projects feasible that might otherwise be prohibitively expensive or difficult.

In related news, the Energy Department on July 11 announced 16 projects across 14 states were set to receive $23.4 million to provide technical assistance and enhanced stakeholder engagement around carbon management technologies.

The projects are housed at both universities and private sector companies, and aim to connect carbon management developers with local communities in a bid to foster collaboration and education toward advancing commercial deployment of carbon capture, transport, and storage technologies across the United States. NETL, under the purview of DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, will manage the selected projects.

Cobalt is used in lithium-ion batteries for many electric vehicles. The NETL innovation could offer financial, environmental and geopolitical implications for recovering the element that is currently produced mostly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, China and Zambia.

The primary working components of lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles and consumer products are the anodes and the cathodes. Cobalt is incorporated into cathodes to prevent them from overheating or catching fire and helps extend battery life. It is also among the most expensive components in terms of total material costs for the batteries.

Researchers found that coal byproducts can be a source for the element, but low concentrations make it difficult to detect the element to recover it. Analyses of the process streams can be expensive and typically requires use of an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer, which can cost up to $100,000 and is typically too large to take outside the laboratory.

NETL researchers created a rapid, inexpensive, and portable characterization technique that can reduce production costs. The system responds nearly instantly to the presence of cobalt with detection performance reported as comparable to a commercial fluorescence spectrometer but at significantly lower costs.

The NETL system uses carbon dots that are co-doped with phosphorus and nitrogen-containing molecules as the sensing materials. Carbon dots are carbon nanoparticles that are less than 10 nm in size, and may be derived from coal. 

The sensor is selective for cobalt in the presence of 13 of the most common metal ions encountered in coal byproducts. It was tested by detecting cobalt when spiked into an acid mine drainage leachate sample. 

The team built upon the initial innovation to create another potential product: a test strip sensor that exhibits a selective and sensitive visual response to cobalt using a handheld ultraviolet lamp.

The systems for detecting cobalt, which is based on a NETL patented portable spectrometer design, was described in the Journal of Materials Chemistry C.

According to the Cobalt Institute, electric vehicles are accelerating cobalt demand, consuming 59,000 tonnes, or 34% of the global total in 2021. The institute predicted that cobalt demand will continue rising as the electric vehicle transition progresses. The institute estimated that 70% of coming growth will be from the electric vehicle sector.

About 74% of mined supply comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo and 72% of the total production is refined in China. Both countries have faced accusations of environmental and human rights abuses associated with cobalt mining. Most of the world’s cobalt, 98%, is produced as a byproduct from large-scale copper and nickel mines. The remaining 2% is extracted in Morocco and from some Canadian arsenide ores.

The Cobalt Institute estimated that cobalt will be one of the main objects of geopolitical competition in a world running on renewable energy and dependent on batteries.

NETL said that being able to use U.S. coal byproducts as a source for cobalt could put the nation in a better position to address that geopolitical competition.

The funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is intended to support three programs to demonstrate and deploy carbon capture systems, along with carbon transport and storage infrastructure.

Projects will be required to develop implementation strategies and report on activities and outcomes related to community economic and other benefits and environmental impacts, such as investments in registered apprenticeships, hiring local workers, participation of minority-owned business, or changes to non-CO2 pollution.  

The funding announcements include:   

Carbon Storage Validation and Testing – This supports the Carbon Storage Assurance Facility Enterprise (CarbonSAFE) Initiative, managed by the office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Demonstrations (FECM), and provides up to $2.25 billion to support the development of new and expanded large-scale, commercial carbon storage projects with capacities to store 50 or more million metric tons of CO2, along with associated CO2 transport infrastructure. Projects are expected to focus on site characterization, permitting, and construction stages of project development under CarbonSAFE. 

Carbon Capture Demonstration Projects Program – DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, in partnership with FECM, will manage the Carbon Capture Demonstration Projects Program. The program provides up to $2.54 billion to develop six integrated carbon capture, transport, and storage demonstration projects that can be replicated and deployet fossil energy power plants and major industrial sources of CO2. The current funding opportunity earmarks up to $189 million for as many as 20 integrated front-end engineering design studies. A second funding opportunity is expected later this year to support detailed design, construction, and operation of carbon capture projects, as well as transport and storage of the captured CO2. 

Carbon Dioxide Transport Engineering and Design – FECM will manage the Carbon Dioxide Transport, Front-End Engineering and Design funding opportunity, which provides up to $100 million to design regional CO2 pipeline networks to safely transport captured CO2 from sources to centralized locations. Projects are expected to focus on carbon transport costs, transport network configurations, and technical and commercial considerations that support efforts to develop and deploy carbon capture, conversion, and storage at commercial scale.

FECM funds research, development, demonstration, and deployment projects to decarbonize power generation and industrial sources, to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and to mitigate the environmental impacts of fossil fuel production and use. 

More information is available here.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) released new report findings on the levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) and CO₂ life cycle emissions of select hydrogen production plants.

The report, “Comparison of Commercial, State-of-the-Art, Fossil-Based Hydrogen Production Technologies,” assesses the cost profiles of hydrogen production plants using fossil fuel resources as the primary feedstocks.

The findings are considered important for stakeholders to assess and determine potential technology combinations to meet the projected demands of the future hydrogen economy. As we’ve reported, utilities and power producers that were surveyed chose hydrogen over all other options when asked which resources would help them meet their carbon emissions reductions goals beyond ten years from now.

Included in NETL’s report are analyses of three natural gas reforming configurations: (1) natural gas steam methane reforming without carbon capture and storage; (2) natural gas steam methane reforming with carbon capture and storage; and (3) autothermal reforming with carbon capture and storage.

The NETL team also analyzed three gasification configurations: (1) coal gasification without carbon capture; (2) coal gasification with carbon capture; and (3) coal plus biomass co-gasification with carbon capture — the last targeting net-zero greenhouse gas emissions on a cradle to gate basis.

Researchers said the carbon capture strategy used in each case recovers greater than 90% of the CO₂ entering the plant boundary, minus the slag formed in gasification cases. NETL said capture is achieved by using a combination of water gas shift (WGS) reactors and solvent-based CO₂ separation technologies. The solvent technologies used are methyl diethanolamine (MDEA) (SMR and ATR), Shell Cansolv (SMR), and two-stage Selexol (coal and coal/biomass gasification).

NETL used the levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH), reported in real 2018 dollars, as the cost metric in its analysis. LCOH is the revenue that must be received by the producer per kilogram of hydrogen, produced to meet the desired return on equity after meeting all debt and tax obligations and operating expenses.

According to the researchers’ findings, the lowest LCOH was $1.06/kg H₂ from the SMR plant without carbon capture (also known as Case 1). The highest LCOH was $3.64/kg H₂ from the coal/biomass co-gasification case with capture (Case 6).

The average LCOH for the gasification cases was about two times greater than the average LCOH for the reforming cases, according to the report. This was mainly due to the higher capital and fixed costs needed in the gasification cases compared to the reforming cases.

Researchers found the largest driver of the LCOH for the reforming cases was the fuel cost. That factor accounted for between 48-73% of the total LCOH. The largest contributor for the gasification cases was the capital cost, accounting for between 40-46% of the total LCOH.

The cost of the feedstock, on a per thermal content unit, was about double for natural gas compared to coal, researchers noted. The greater complexity of the gasification plants explained the large contribution of capital costs to the LCOH.

Fixed operations and maintenance (O&M) costs accounted for 20% of the gasification case’s average LCOH, which was 13 percentage points higher than the reforming cases. Researchers attributed this to the relatively higher operating, maintenance, and administrative labor burden in the gasification cases as well as higher property taxes and insurance.

The addition of CO₂ capture technology impacted the reforming plant’s LCOH more than the gasification plant’s LCOH, according to the report. Adding CCS to the reforming cases increased the LCOH by 54% for the SMR plant (Case 2). Adding capture to the coal gasification plant (Case 5) increased the LCOH by 20%.

For this report, the cost of CO₂ transport and storage on an equivalent dollar per kilogram basis represented a 100-mile CO₂ pipeline and storage in a deep saline formation in the Midwest. When factored in, the CO₂ transport and storage levelized cost component represented about 5-6% of the total LCOH across the cases with CO₂ capture considered in this study.

You can read the full report here.

The Advanced Ultra-Supercritical (AUSC) Component Testing (ComTest) Project aimed to fabricate full commercial-scale components to enable plants to operate with greater efficiency and at conditions of up to 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit and steam or supercritical carbon dioxide pressures of at least 3,500 pounds per square inch. At higher efficiency levels, fossil-fueled power plants generate electricity using less fuel and produce fewer emissions.

The $27.7 million project included $20 million in DOE funding led by the National Energy Technology Laboratory. The most recent phase focused on developing a U.S. supply chain of commercial AUSC components made of nickel-based alloys.

Nickel superalloy ingot producers, foundries, forging, pipe extrusion and bending fabricators and research centers in 15 states participated in the project. The aim was to design and build AUSC components from nickel superalloys and other advanced alloys for reliable operation under both steady-state and varying-load operating conditions.

To make room for greater amounts of wind and solar power on the electric grid, conventional generating units must ramp down and ramp up or stop and start electricity-generating operations more frequently. During cycling, boiler tubes, superheaters and other plant components undergo large temperature and pressure stresses. The AUSC components developed through ComTest are expected to withstand cycling for operating lifespans of at least 30 years.

Two nickel superalloys used in the project were approved by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) for use in boilers and pressure vessels. 

In 2021, the new nickel-based superalloy Haynes International H282, developed by Haynes International and tested as part of the ComTest project, received ASME approval for use in boilers, fired heaters, pressure vessels and other key components.

The new superalloy may also be suited for other high-temperature structural applications, especially those in aero and industrial gas turbine engines. The superalloy offers a combination of creep strength (the tendency of materials to deform permanently under persistent mechanical stresses), thermal stability, weldability and fabricability typically not found in currently available commercial alloys.

One final ComTest project was a successful effort by Scot Forge to forge, machine and apply final heat treatment to a thick-wall pipe fitting manufactured with Inconel Alloy 740H, a nickel-based superalloy that offers a combination of high strength and creep resistance at elevated temperatures along with resistance to coal ash corrosion.

Special Metals Inc., the developer of Inconel 740H, provided the ingot for the wye fitting. Inconel Alloy 740H was the other nickel superalloy approved by ASME for use in power plant boilers and pressure vessels.

Clean hydrogen production and use must increase by 50 fold, from 10 million tons per year to more than 500 million tons per year by 2050, if U.S. decarbonization goals are to be met.

That’s according to a report released February 14 by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). The report, a collaboration with Gas Technology Institute (GTI), is based on a workshop last September that encompassed public and private sector input.

The workshop's goal was to brainstorm themes related to fossil energy’s role in accelerating a clean hydrogen future.

Report findings noted while many opportunities exist for hydrogen's growth, government leadership would be critical in achieving decarbonization goals. This would include tax credits and incentives, research, development and demonstration funding.  It would also be important to reduce permitting, regulatory, and economic barriers to implement hydrogen projects – across all levels of government.

Another theme in the report was that carbon capture and storage (CCS) would be vital for producing hydrogen from fossil fuels. The carbon intensity of hydrogen produced using natural gas as fuel with CCS is significantly impacted by methane emissions leakage from natural gas infrastructure. “Blue hydrogen,” produced from fossils with CCS, could contribute to a net-zero world with very low upstream emissions if methane leaks are minimized, the report noted.

“Industry is eager to move forward, at a variety of scales and using a variety of approaches, to take advantage of what is seen as a growing demand for hydrogen in the U.S. energy portfolio,” the report said. It also found "significant potential" to retrofit existing fossil-based hydrogen production facilities with carbon capture for nearby storage.

While technologically few hurdles exist to CCS, the issues of long-term liability risks and slow permitting of Class VI injection wells could jeopardize investor interest, the findings said. Proactive government action would be necessary to solve these problems.

MORE: Now the work begins as hydrogen and carbon capture projects seek financing

Another theme that emerged was that efforts to expand hydrogen should take advantage of areas that include high fuel capacity, large volume infrastructure, significant storage capacity, and a nearby industrial base. An important regional variable is the availability of geologic storage options for both hydrogen and carbon dioxide in places where industrial demand is centered.

Other recommendations included were to prioritize hydrogen hub locations near disadvantaged communities. For example, coal mining communities where there are opportunities to source fuel and store CO^₂ while lifting under-employed workforce through training.

The $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill signed into law by President Biden in November 2021 includes several hydrogen-specific provisions that will drive large-scale deployment and investment in the hydrogen industry. The bill includes a package of hydrogen-specific policies, including: the creation of large-scale clean hydrogen hubs across the country, funding for clean hydrogen electrolysis research and development, and efforts to promote clean hydrogen manufacturing and recycling. Additionally, the bill directs the federal government to develop the country’s first national hydrogen roadmap and strategy.

Earlier in February, the DOE's Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management announced $28 million for research, development and front-end engineering design projects to advance clean hydrogen for power generation, transportation and industrial use.

That funding is on top of DOE’s August 2021 announcement of $52.5 million to fund 31 projects to advance next-gen clean hydrogen technologies and support the department’s Hydrogen Energy Earthshot initiative. The first Earthshot, Hydrogen Shot, which was launched last July, seeks to reduce the cost of clean hydrogen by 80% to $1 per one kilogram in one decade.

You can read the full NETL-GTI report here.