The Wyoming Integrated Test Center (ITC) has announced that the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER) has signed a lease to use a portion the ITC’s large test bay as part of CAER’s Phase II application of the Fossil Fuel Large-Scale Pilots funding opportunity.
CAER was selected as one of nine Phase I grant recipients and is currently finalizing their Phase II application. CAER has validated their heat-integrated solvent-based system during a previous DOE-funded project and hopes to obtain one of two $50 million grants to design, construct, and operate a 10MWe pilot project. If CAER is the recipient of a Phase III grant, they will host this large-scale pilot at the ITC.
“We are excited to work with CAER and provide them with space at the ITC to continue to prove their technology. Partnerships like this highlight that carbon capture research and development is moving forward; and successful demonstration of large-scale projects gets us one step closer to commercial deployment of these innovative technologies,” said Jason Begger, Executive Director of the Wyoming Infrastructure Authority, the managing entity for the ITC. “The ITC is a great option for researchers looking to test these large-scale projects. As the only facility in the United States that allows for testing carbon management technologies at this scale, the ITC continues to gain attention from the CCUS community and we are happy to have Wyoming host these projects.”
“We look forward to partnering with the Wyoming Integrated Test Center to advance our groundbreaking CO2 capture research and development,” said Kunlei Liu, Associate Director for Research at CAER and an Associate Professor in UK’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. “Over the past decade, our research team has made great strides in improving this technology at the bench-scale and pilot-scale. It is time to take our technology toward the next step in the commercialization process with this large-scale pilot project, and we have identified a partner in Wyoming that shares our passion for seeing this work come to fruition.”
Phase II applications will be considered in early 2019, with Phase III awards tentatively scheduled to be announced in Summer 2020. If CAER advances to the third and final phase of the process, they would have up to five years to design, build and operate the project.
The ITC currently has several other tenants slated to test their carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration technologies at the facility. Five teams competing for the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE will be completing their research onsite through 2020. Additionally, in April 2018 it was announced that Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. (KHI) will test their solid sorbent capture technology at the ITC.
Membrane Technology and Research, Inc. (MTR) has also listed the ITC as their preferred testing site on their Phase II funding application for this Fossil Fuel Large-Scale Pilot funding opportunity. If both MTR and CAER move forward, there is sufficient space available at the ITC to host both teams.
