COLUMBUS, Ohio, Dec. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP) has committed $2 million to support the commercial development of advanced compression technology for carbon dioxide (CO2) as part of an ongoing initiative that includes the Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Lab (NETL), Ramgen Power Systems LLC and Dresser-Rand. The initiative is developing a supersonic shockwave compression system that will reduce the cost and energy consumption associated with compressing CO2( )for storage in deep underground porous rock formations.

Sequestering CO2( )in underground formations requires compressing the gas to more than 1,500 pound-force per square inch (psi). Existing compression technology represents a substantial part of the capital and operating costs of developing CO2 capture and storage systems. The advanced compression system being developed by Ramgen will use supersonic shockwaves to compress CO2 for capture and storage. If successful, the shockwave compression technology is projected to reduce the capital cost of CO2 compression equipment by as much as 50 percent and reduce operating costs of a carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) system by at least 15 percent.

AEP is leading the U.S. utility industry in advancing CCS technologies. The company began capturing and sequestering CO2 Oct. 1 from 20 megawatts of the flue gas at its Mountaineer Plant in New Haven, W.Va., using chilled ammonia technology developed by Alstom. The Mountaineer CCS project is the first integrated CO2 capture and sequestration project at an operating coal-fueled power plant.

On Dec. 4, AEP was awarded $334 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy Clean Coal Power Initiative Round 3 to pay part of the costs to scale up the chilled ammonia process to capture at least 90 percent of the CO2( )from 235 megawatts of the plant's 1,300 megawatts of capacity. The captured CO2, 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.

"Advancing technologies to capture and permanently store carbon dioxide from coal-fueled power plants is critical if we are going to reduce global concentrations of greenhouse gases," said Nick Akins, AEP executive vice president, Generation. "Now that we have completed construction and are operating the CCS validation system at our plant in West Virginia, our focus is on working to better understand and optimize that process to help ensure that the economics of CCS make sense for our customers and for use on the world's vast fleet of coal-fueled power plants."

In addition to providing financial support, AEP will consult on the development and demonstration of a 10,000-horsepower CO2 compressor that will be tested at Dresser-Rand's test facility in Olean, N.Y., in 2011. AEP also has committed to working with Ramgen and Dresser-Rand on potential future tests of the shockwave compression technology at AEP sites.

Ramgen was awarded a $20 million grant Aug. 10 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for continued development of the shockwave compression technology.

American Electric Power is one of the largest electric utilities in the United States, delivering electricity to more than 5 million customers in 11 states. AEP ranks among the nation's largest generators of electricity, owning nearly 38,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the U.S. AEP also owns the nation's largest electricity transmission system, a nearly 39,000-mile network that includes more 765-kilovolt extra-high voltage transmission lines than all other U.S. transmission systems combined. AEP's transmission system directly or indirectly serves about 10 percent of the electricity demand in the Eastern Interconnection, the interconnected transmission system that covers 38 eastern and central U.S. states and eastern Canada, and approximately 11 percent of the electricity demand in ERCOT, the transmission system that covers much of Texas. AEP's utility units operate as AEP Ohio, AEP Texas, Appalachian Power (in Virginia and West Virginia), AEP Appalachian Power (in Tennessee), Indiana Michigan Power, Kentucky Power, Public Service Company of Oklahoma, and Southwestern Electric Power Company (in Arkansas, Louisiana and east Texas). AEP's headquarters are in Columbus, Ohio.

Ramgen is a privately held development-stage company headquartered in Bellevue, Wash., with highly efficient technology designed to compress CO2 for sequestration. Ramgen's technology innovations center on supersonic air and gas compressors, high velocity vortex gas turbine combustors, integrated power generation and military electric drive propulsion systems and auxiliary power units.

Dresser-Rand is among the largest suppliers of rotating equipment solutions to the worldwide oil, gas, petrochemical, and process industries. The company operates manufacturing facilities in the United States, France, United Kingdom, Germany, Norway, India, and China, and maintains a network of 35 service and support centers covering more than 140 countries.

SOURCE American Electric Power

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