NET Power announced a plan to develop and build its first utility-scale natural gas-fired plant with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS).
The NET Power capture system utilizes the Allam-Fetvedt Cycle, combusting natural gas with oxygen, as opposed to air, and uses supercritical carbon dioxide as a working fluid to drive a turbine instead of steam. This theoretically eliminates all air emissions, including traditional pollutants and CO2 and inherently produces pipeline-quality CO2 that can be sequestered underground.
Expected to be online in 2026, the new 300 MW plant would be located near Occidental’s Permian Basin operations close to Odessa, Texas. Captured CO2 would be transported to a permanent underground sequestration location through Occidental’s existing Permian CO2 handling infrastructure.
The announcement comes after years of technology testing. NET Power successfully achieved first fire of its demonstration plant and test facility in La Porte, Texas in 2018. The plant was connected to the ERCOT grid in the Fall of 2021.
In February 2022 NET Power announced a partnership with Baker Hughes in February 2022 to develop and market supercritical CO2 turboexpanders, with the goal of accelerating other projects already in development.
There are several announced NET Power projects proposing to use the Allam-Fetvedt cycle. These include the 280 MW Broadwing Clean Energy Complex in Illinois and the 280 MW Coyote Clean Power Project on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation in Colorado. No dates have been set for commercial operation at this time.
NET Power is co-owned by Constellation Energy, Baker Hughes, 8 Rivers Capital, and Oxy Low Carbon Ventures (OLCV), a subsidiary of Occidental.
NET Power plans to seek federal, state or local funding for the project.
The company added its prospects have improved with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the included enhancements to the 45Q carbon capture tax credit. To qualify for these credits, electric power plants must be designed to capture at least 75 percent of CO2 emissions.
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