Focus on USA | Gas with carbon capture at Decatur
Broadwing Energy, a subsidiary of Houston- based ‘energy transition company’ Warwick Carbon Solutions, is building an innovative natural-gas-with-carbon-capture power plant in Illinois. One of its roles will be to help meet the energy needs of agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and lessen ADM’s carbon footprint.
Construction of the power plant is expected to start in 2025 and be completed in 2028. The natural gas fuelled plant will provide both electricity and steam for ADM’s processing operations in Decatur, Illinois, which consist of three facilities across more than 1100 acres. The captured carbon dioxide will be transferred to ADM’s existing carbon storage wells. ADM’s products include citric acid, lactic acid, xanthan gum, dextrose, sorbitol, corn syrup, and ethanol.
Warwick estimates that the facility will have the potential to permanently sequester
underground more than two million tons of CO2 emissions per year.
It is expected to achieve a carbon dioxide capture efficiency of over 90%.
Broadwing says the plant will net roughly 350 MW of lower-emission power. ADM will
buy about 95 MW of that power for its Decatur operations.
The Decatur project was announced in 2021, when the plan was to use Allam-Fetvedt supercritical CO2
cycle technology – anticipated
to be one of the first projects to employ that concept. But it will now employ a “conventional” amine-based carbon dioxide scrubbing system using technology developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Mitsubishi Power will supply the power generation equipment, including an advanced gas turbine.
Mitsubishi capture technology was selected because “it is ready for widescale deployment and demonstrates the highest level of operational and technical performance”, says Jonathan Wiens, CEO, Warwick Carbon Solutions.
Warwick Carbon Solutions’ equity backer is London-based investment firm Warwick Capital Partners, which opened a Houston office last year. Founded in 2010, Warwick Capital has about $2.5 billion in assets under management. The Broadwing project can be viewed as “a game changer in the development and the deployment of carbon capture and sequestration,” says Jonathan Wiens.
“ADM continues to lead in the
decarbonisation of the industries in which we operate,” says Ian Pinner, ADM’s senior vice president of strategy and innovation. In March 2023, Mitsubishi Power and Warwick Carbon Solutions announced that they had entered into a joint development agreement (JDA) which “leverages the expertise of both companies to advance decarbonisation projects among energy and industrial sectors.”
“As evidenced by the US IRA and other important initiatives directed at advancing clean energy, the time is now to collaboratively pursue new decarbonisation technologies & solutions,” said Bill Newsom, president & CEO, Mitsubishi Power Americas. The two companies said they plan to “work together as strategic partners to identify and develop long-term viable projects that will help the North American region achieve net zero no later than 2050. Each company brings their own world-class products, services and design expertise to the JDA which will focus on the decarbonisation of companies operating in the oil & gas, industrial process, and power generation sectors.”
8.6 GW of new gas power in 2023
As of mid October, ten new natural-gas- fired power plants had come online in the USA in 2023, totalling of 6.8 GW of installed capacity, according to the US Energy Information Administration’s Monthly Electric Generator Inventory. By the end of 2023, the EIA expected another six natural-gas-fired power plants, totalling 1.8 GW of additional generating capacity, to come online, bringing the total 2023 capacity addition to 8.6 GW. The additions include both combined cycle and simple cycle facilities concentrated near the Gulf Coast and Appalachia natural gas producing regions and in Florida. In 2022, a total of 11 natural gas-fired power plants came online, adding 5.6 GW of capacity. Total natural gas-fired capacity additions increased
gigawatts
10 15 20 25 30 35 40
0 5
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020
Above: Annual US combined cycle capacity additions, 1990–2025, GW
(Data source: US Energy Information Administration, Monthly Electric Generator Inventory)
20 | November/December 2023|
www.modernpowersystems.com 2025
in both 2022 and 2023 after consecutive declines in the prior three years. In the next two years (2024 and 2025), the EIA expects 20 new natural-gas-fired power plants to come online with a total capacity of 7.7 GW.
During 2022 and 2023, a total of 13 new CCGT plants with a combined capacity of 12.4 GW will have entered service. Approximately 5.8 GW of the total capacity is located in Florida and Michigan. These two states already produce electricity primarily from natural gas-fired power plants. EIA expects 4.9 GW of additional CCGT additions in 2024 and 2025, only 0.1 GW of which is planned for 2024.
During 2022 and 2023, 14 simple cycle gigawatts operational planned
10 12 14 16 18 20
0 2 4 6 8
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020
Above: Annual US natural gas simple cycle power generation capacity additions (1990–2025) (Data source: US Energy Information Administration, Monthly Electric Generator Inventory)
2025
plants, total installed capacity 1.9 GW, will have entered operation. Over half of the new simple cycle capacity coming online in 2022 and 2023 is located in Texas, which has periods of high daily peak electricity demand throughout the summer and has had significant growth in renewable energy during the last few years. Additional new simple cycle units, total capacity 2.8 GW, mostly located in Texas near high population areas, are expected to enter service in 2024 and 2025. Looking at all energy sources, solar power will account for the largest capacity addition in the USA in 2023, at around 25 GW, with wind and battery storage also likely to exceed gas in terms of installed capacity added in the course of 2023.
operational planned
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