World's first zero-emission greenhouse gas power station is being tested in Texas
In La Porte, Texas, a gas turbine power plant has been put into test operation, which completely utilizes greenhouse gases without throwing it into the atmosphere. The capacity of the demonstration facility is 50 MW. It is enough to provide electricity to 40 thousand homes. The developer of the project, the start-up company NET Power has already reported the first successful firing of innovative combustor. The inventor of the technology is a retired engineer-chemist Rodney Allam. According to the scheme proposed by him, the electricity is generated in seven stages. The process begins with a device that draws oxygen from the air and feeds it to the combustor. In the combustor, natural gas is burned in pure oxygen by supercritical carbon dioxide. The resulting hot CO2 and water vapor under high pressure are sent to a small turbine (ten times smaller than usual), in which the shaft is rotated under pressure of the gas mixture and electricity is produced. Then, the cooled CO2 at the outlet from the turbine is divided into parts. About 5% of carbon dioxide is stored in sellable form. And the rest is returned to the combustor. According to representatives of NET Power, the construction of environmentally friendly gas turbine power plant is not more expensive than traditional station. In particular, US $ 150 million were invested into the project of the power plant in La Porte.
