RTI International Wins $4M Contract To Combat Power Plant Emissions

RTI International

has won a $4 million contract to develop a means of reducing carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants.

RTI received the three-year contract through the Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory.

The process RTI researchers will pursue is based on an inexpensive, dry, reusable sorbent, or materials designed to be absorbent. RTI has been working on the technology for five years. It also might be usable for natural gas plants, cement plants and petroleum refineries.

“The release of carbon dioxide emissions into our atmosphere is becoming one of the major environmental issues of the early 21st century," said Thomas Nelson, the RTI project director. "Providing power plants with a lower cost, lower energy-intensive technology for carbon dioxide capture will help to stabilize the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide and thus help to control global climate change."

Private sector and other participants include BOC Gases; Electric Power Research Institute; the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; ARCADIS, Inc.; ADA-ES, Inc.; Solvay Chemicals; and Süd-Chemie, Inc. A demonstration system will be designed and tested at a coal-fired facility. The U.S. Department of Energy will provide technical and other support.

The work at RTI is being doing through its Center for Energy Technology.