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Atlanta, June 13, 2011 — Southern Co.‘s 25-MW carbon capture and storage facility is operating and capturing carbon dioxide.
Located at Plant Barry near Mobile, Ala., the CCS facility works in tandem with a coal-fired generating power plant. It will capture about 150,000 tons of carbon dioxide annually — or the equivalent of emissions from 25 MW — for permanent underground storage in a deep saline geologic formation.
In addition to the Barry CCS project, the company is:
* Managing the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Carbon Capture Center in Alabama, testing the next generation of technologies to capture carbon dioxide emissions.
* Building a commercial-scale, 582-MW coal-fired plant in Kemper County, Miss., using local lignite and the company’s Transport Integrated Gasification technology, with 65 percent carbon capture and re-use.
* Drilling wells to assess geologic suitability for carbon storage at other power plants
* Partnering with universities to train the next generation of CCS engineers and to provide advanced geologic testing capabilities
Carbon dioxide at the Barry facility is being captured using Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. technology KM-CDR, which uses an advanced amine solvent. The process begins with coal combustion that generates electricity, leaving a flue gas.
The carbon dioxide from the flue gas reacts with the amine solvent before being captured from the flue gas. It is then compressed, making it ready for pipeline transport.
Captured carbon from the plant will be supplied to the Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership, or SECARB, for transport by pipeline and injection 9,500 feet underground at a site within the Citronelle Oil Field. The site, about 11 miles from the pant, is operated by Denbury Resources.
The carbon dioxide will remain below the surface, permanently trapped in the geological formation into which it was injected and is not being used for enhanced oil recovery. A characterization well previously drilled within the field by SECARB revealed excellent characteristics for safe geologic storage.
Plant Barry is owned and operated by Alabama Power. The CCS facility is owned and operated by Southern Co. Services. Both Alabama Power and SCS are subsidiaries of Southern Co.
