LANL lends its scientific expertise to clean energy and carbon sequestration projects

September 29, 2010—Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu recently announced that as part of the DOE Fossil Energy Program, the agency is funding large, complementary projects that will focus on clean energy and carbon sequestration. And LANL is deeply involved in two of these projects - the Clean Coal Center and the Carbon Capture and Storage Simulation Initiative.

Clean Coal Center

The Department of Energy is funding the U.S. component of two new U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Centers for a total of $25 M over the next five years. The work is associated with clean coal and clean vehicles.  Industrial partners and universities will provide matching funds for research in the United States, while the Chinese government will provide an equal amount of funding for parallel research centers in China. The United States and China will work together to tackle major hurdles for the use of clean-energy technologies and practices.

LANL is part of the winning proposal for the Clean Coal Center, named the U.S.-China Advanced Coal Technology Collaboration (U.S.-China ACT). This center is focused on collaboration between the United States and China for the next generation of clean-coal technologies, including carbon capture and storage. West Virginia University will lead a collaboration that includes LANL, the University of Wyoming, University of Kentucky, Indiana University, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, National Energy Technology Laboratory, World Resources Institute, U.S.-China Clean Energy Forum, General Electric, Duke Energy, LP Amina, Babcock & Wilcox, and American Electric Power.

The Clean Coal Center has eight primary research tasks: 1) Site Characterization and Assessment for Geological Sequestration, 2) Subsurface Simulation of Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) Injection and Coupled Processes, 3) Risk Assessment and Hazard Management, 4) Integrated Industrial Process Modeling, 5) Novel Capture Technology Development, 6) Coal Conversion and Utilization, 7) CO₂ Utilization, and 8) International Integration and Communication.

Los Alamos will lead the Risk Analysis task and will provide scientific support for the Subsurface Simulation of  CO₂ Injection and Coupled Processes, Site Characterization and Assessment for Geological Sequestration, and Novel Capture Technology Development tasks. The Laboratory also will leverage its carbon sequestration expertise, programs, and collaborations, such as DOE's National Risk Assessment Partnership (NRAP) and regional sequestration partnerships. Philip Stauffer of Computational Earth Sciences (EES-16) is the LANL principal investigator for the Clean Coal Center project.  LANL researchers from EES-16, Earth System Observations (EES-14), LANSCE-Lujan Center (LANSCE-LC), and Materials Chemistry (MPA-MC) will participate in the work.

Carbon Capture and Storage Simulation Initiative

The Carbon Capture and Storage Simulation Initiative was created with an investment of up to $40 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This partnership will bring together national laboratories and regional university alliances to accelerate the development of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies from inception to full-scale deployment. Information gained through the partnership will further DOE's effort to develop lower cost, efficient industrial-scale CCS processes. The collaboration builds upon the Administration's goal to overcome the barriers to widespread, cost-effective deployment of CCS within 10 years, while helping position the United States as a leader in global clean energy.

Through the use of advanced modeling and simulation, researchers will develop science-based methods to lower the cost of carbon capture while reducing technical and financial risks associated with its storage. Included in this initiative are the DOE's National Risk Assessment Partnership (NRAP) and the Carbon Capture Simulation Initiative (CCSI). Los Alamos is providing scientific support for both activities.

The Carbon Capture and Storage Simulation Initiative will fund simulation and modeling activities at LANL to advance the following areas:

• Development of advanced simulation tools to speed the path from concept to deployment of new methods for capturing CO₂ at a variety of industrial facilities (CCSI)
• Development of a defensible, science-based methodology and advanced simulation tools for quantitative assessment of potential risks associated with long-term CO₂storage (NRAP)

The National Energy Technology Lab (NETL) is leading the CCSI and NRAP projects, partnering with national laboratories (Lawrence Berkeley, Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos, and Pacific Northwest) for this project. Bruce Letellier of International and Nuclear Systems Engineering (D-5) is the LANL principal investigator. Scientists from Computer, Computational, and Statistical Sciences (CCS), Decision Applications (D), Earth and Environmental Sciences (EES), and Theoretical (T) divisions will participate in research to model and simulate carbon capture technology in a power plant. Rajesh Pawar of Computational Earth Sciences (EES-16) leads the LANL component of NRAP.

Melissa Fox of Applied Energy (SPO-AE) is the LANL program manager for work on these two projects, which support the Laboratory's Energy Security mission area. More information is available in two DOE news releases: "Secretary Chu announces U.S. Centers for U.S.-China Clean Energy Research" and "Secretary Chu announces Carbon Capture and Storage Simulation Initiative."

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Schematic of carbon capture and geological sequestration for clean energy from coal. Image by Anthony Mancino of International Research, Analysis, and Development (IAT-1).