JCOAL, Kawasaki Heavy Industries carbon capture research technology completed at Integrated Test Center, Dry Fork Station

JCOAL (Japan Carbon Frontier Organization) and its partner Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI), along with representatives from University of Wyoming, Wyoming Integrated Test Center (ITC), and Basin Electric, held a ceremony Oct. 9 to mark the construction completion of their solid sorbent capture technology at the ITC adjacent to Basin Electric’s Dry Fork Station near Gillette.

Speaking about the importance of global partnerships to accelerate energy research, U.S. Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) provided remarks during the ceremony along with representatives from Ministry of Environment, Government of Japan (MOJE), the University of Wyoming School of Energy Resources, JCOAL, KHI and Basin Electric.

“When I think of energy, I think of energy security, economic strength, and environmental stewardship. We are committed to all three of those here at this center [ITC] and in the state of Wyoming,” Barrasso said. “We have all of the energy sources, and we need all the energy sources.”

“We believe and advocate for an all-of-the-above energy strategy, which means utilizing all fuels that are practical, affordable, and reliable,” said Chris Baumgartner, Basin Electric senior vice president of Member & External Relations. “At the cooperative, we have integrated many technologies over the years — we have incorporated renewables, more natural gas, we continue to use hydro where it’s applicable. But we have always come back to the use of coal and how important it is to continue to provide reliable energy for our members. Providing reliable, affordable energy helps millions of people. It changes and enhances lives; that’s the business that we’re in.”

One of only a few facilities in the world, the ITC is a carbon capture and utilization test center that provides space for technology developers to evaluate their technologies using actual coal-based flue gas from an operating coal-fired powered plant, Dry Fork Station.

“I believe it is very meaningful to be able to demonstrate a separation method using a solid absorbent, which is a carbon dioxide (CO₂) separation and capture technology at the ITC under the Japan-US cooperation,” said MOJE Director of Climate Change Projects Office in the Climate Change Policy Division Genichiro Tsukada. “I hope the results of this project will lead to the practical application of CO₂ separation and capture technology using solid absorbent and contribute to the further promotion of CCUS (carbon capture, utilization, and storage) efforts.”

Now fully assembled on site, testing of the equipment will begin in the coming weeks and is important for the establishment of solid absorbent CO₂ capture technology.

“This is a really exciting technology, and the collection of the data and information at this scale is really going to help scale this technology and even go commercial eventually,” said School of Energy Resources Executive Director Dr. Holly Krutka.

Commissioned by MOEJ, the JCOAL-KHI project broke ground at the ITC in May 2023 and is intended to demonstrate a novel CO₂ separation and recovery technology using solid absorbents. The bench-scale demonstration will also verify the effectiveness and usefulness of the technology for commercial deployment to large-scale plants and is promising for the future of carbon capture technologies.