Gordon: Wyoming Can Make Carbon Capture Work If Feds Would Get Out Of The Way

GILLETTE — Campbell County Commissioner Jim Ford believes capturing and storing carbon dioxide emissions could be commercially applied in just a few years if politicians would just get out of the way and let industry do it.

“If it’s just up to the engineers and the operations folks, (it could be ready in a) couple years,” he said. “You start getting the politicians involved, it’s going to take longer.”

Ford is also the operations manager at the Integrated Test Center (ITC) in Gillette, which Ford describes as the best location in America for testing large-scale carbon capture and usage. The winner of the first Carbon XPrize was tested and demonstrated at the ITC, which is attached to the Dry Fork Station coal-fired power plant about 10 miles north of Gillette.

The carbon capture and utilization facility at Basin Electric Power Cooperative‘s coal-fired plant allows carbon capture technology developers access to scrubbed flue gas that would otherwise be released from the coal plant.

The state spent $15 million to build and begin operating the facility in 2014, which can get up to 25 megawatts worth of CO2 emissions from Dry Fork.

On Tuesday afternoon, Ford gave a tour organized by Gov. Mark Gordon’s office of the ITC to showcase the projects that are underway at the facility. The massive facility is seen as one of the world’s most technology advanced for carbon capture and sequestration. Massive carbon storage tanks, pipes and other devices dot the outside of the coal plant.

Perception vs. Reality

There is a perception among some in Wyoming that making carbon capture commercially viable is unattainable or unrealistic. Others lump it in with alternative energies like wind and solar, while others still maintain it’s anti-coal.

Ford said none of these conclusions hit the mark and that carbon capture is just another iteration of coal production becoming cleaner and more efficient.

“There are decision-makers that still require abundant, affordable, reliable energy. They also prefer that it’s cleaner,” he said. “We’re just one half of the market equation demand, supply. There’s a demand for it so we should supply it.”

Gordon said weaving through the federal bureaucracy on carbon capture is no easy task, especially when trying to navigate the mixed messaging coming from President Joe Biden’s administration and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Gordon said the regulations being put into place at the federal level on coal and carbon emissions will correspondingly inhibit the development of carbon capture technology into the future.

On one hand, the EPA has generally supported carbon capture projects, but on the other, the Biden administration has been very anti-coal, passing a rule earlier this year that would end coal production in the Powder River Basin by 2041, Gordon said.

“In my mind, they intentionally created that gap,” Gordon said.

Gordon said that’s one of the main reasons why the state of Wyoming is fighting the rule in court to extend the Power River deadline.

“If your goal is to reduce CO2, give us a chance to do it because we can do it better here than you can by standing up renewables all over the place,” he said.

World Class

The University of Wyoming’s School of Energy Resources is the Integrated Test Center’s administrator. Holly Krutka, executive director of the school, said the Dry Fork plant is an example of what coal-fired power plants can look like in the future.

“I think Wyoming is the best place in the world to do energy innovation,” she said.

Krutka said no coal plant would buy anything that hasn’t been tested on actual flue gas in real world conditions, and that’s the valuable testing the ITC provides.

She mentioned testing about to be performed at ITC by a company called Membrane Technology and Research that’s only one level of testing from designing a full-scale commercial system. This will represent the largest membrane carbon capture operation in the world, working at a 10-megawatt scale.

Membrane Technology began testing its technology at the ITC in 2021 with nearly $52 million from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Another project recently approved by DOE is for a 25-megawatt demonstration that involves a more than $50 million investment.

Kawasaki Heavy Industries is another participant.

Why Do It?

The Dry Fork Station is one of the newest coal plants in the country, which means it has some of the latest technologies. It’s also strategically located in the coal-rich Powder River Basin and Wyoming, which is very supportive of the plant’s involvement in CO2 research and development of technologies.

Wyoming coal production and employment has been on a slow and steady decline since around 2009. About 90% of the coal produced in the state is exported out of state, with Texas the biggest customer.

Ford said carbon capture is a viable avenue to protect the coal industry, not hinder it.

Put simply, if CO2 is the main concern of burning coal to make electricity, finding ways to negate those emissions and still have the benefit of burning cheap, reliable coal should also be on the table, not only renewables.

“We can continue to demonstrate leadership here in Wyoming and make sure that coal remains a viable part of our energy portfolio,” he said.

Terry Ackerman, plant manager at Dry Fork, said Basin Electric wanted to get involved with the Integrated Test Center because of the increase in demand for renewable energy, making detachable plants like his all the more valuable.

He said the EPA has been signaling that carbon capture may be required in the future. Last summer, EPA Administrator Michael Regan toured Dry Fork Station with Gordon.

“You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t necessarily make it drink,” Gordon said. “But I will say he did say how important this technology was.”

This spring, the EPA put out a rule that would require 90% capture for coal plants that intend to operate past 2038.

“ITC is a way for Basin to participate in development of coal capture technologies should they be required in the future,” Ackerman said.

Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.