Point source capture (PSC) in fossil fuel-based power production separates CO₂ emissions from a power plant’s flue gas or syngas stream to prevent its release into the atmosphere. The captured CO₂ is durably stored or converted to a long-lived product, resulting in an overall reduction in CO₂ emissions. In conventional fossil fuel-fired power plants, a fossil fuel such as natural gas is combusted with air to generate thermal energy, which is converted to electricity. Combined cycle gas plants are a type of natural gas power plant consisting of a simple cycle gas plant in combination with a steam engine, using both heat and steam to generate electricity. In a natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) plant, the heat generated from combusting natural gas is expanded through a gas turbine, generating electricity, while waste heat from the gas turbine is used to generate steam, which then powers a second turbine, generating additional electricity. Of the 4 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity generated in the United States in 2020, approximately 40% was from natural gas (2021, EIA)ⁱ. With 60% of the total U.S. energy consumption from fossil fuels, deployment of point source capture technologies in power production is vital to reduce CO₂ emissionsⁱ. One principal challenge in carbon capture from fossil fuel power generation is cost-effectively separating the relatively low concentration of CO₂ from the other flue gas constituents that generally are detrimental to separation materials, capture systems, materials of construction, and process and plant efficiency. Although flue gases from NGCC plants typically contain approximately 4 to 5% CO₂ by volume (compared to 12 to 15% in coal-fired flue gas), natural gas is less carbon-intensive than other fossil fuelsⁱⁱ.

The PSCC Program also supports engineering-scale testing (i.e., up to 12 MWe or 200 tonnes CO₂/day) of advanced post-combustion CO₂ capture technologies under actual flue gas conditions. Engineering-scale testing of carbon capture technologies can be performed at carbon capture test centers or by means of purpose-built pilots installed at power plant facilities. Testing under continuous steady-state operation, as well as off-load plant conditions, provides performance data necessary for further process scale-up. Results from field-test campaigns provide critical information for a subsequent FEED evaluation.

In addition to supporting the testing of integrated CO₂ capture systems at operating power plants, NETL partners with Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM) in Norway, the world’s largest open access test center for carbon capture technologies, to conduct engineering-scale test campaigns under actual flue gas conditions. TCM’s facility consists of two post-combustion capture plants (one based on chilled ammonia technology and one based on amine technology) designed to test solvent-based technologies using actual flue gas - at the equivalent of approximately 12 MWe - sourced from an on-site natural gas-fired combined heat and power (CHP) plant or the residue fluid catalytic cracking (RFCC) flue gas of the Equinor refinery. The TCM facility also consists of a module site for testing emerging carbon capture technologies.