NorthStar Clean Energy Awards Babcock & Wilcox Contract to Study Biomass Fuel with CCS Conversion

NorthStar Clean Energy awarded Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) a contract to conduct a bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) engineering study, partially funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, to convert a coal-fired power plant to use biomass fuel and retrofit the plant with B&W’s SolveBright CO₂ capture process.

“Capturing CO₂ from biomass combustion allows a plant to generate energy and be a net-negative emitter of greenhouse gases,” said Joe Buckler, B&W Senior Vice President, Clean Energy. “This in turn allows the plant owner to offset emissions from other sources such as through the sale and trade of carbon credits.”

The CO₂ generated by the plant will be captured using B&W’s SolveBright post-combustion CO₂ scrubbing process, which provides flexibility in the regenerable solvent used to isolate CO₂ for sequestration or utilization.

“For post-combustion carbon capture, B&W offers pre-treatment technologies to clean the flue gas prior to carbon capture and our SolveBright process that can be tailored to support the preferred solvent of our customers,” Buckler said.

When the biomass and carbon capture conversion is complete, TES Filer City Station will be able to provide power to more than 70,000 homes while producing net-negative CO2 emissions.