Duke teams with Chinese co. to advance carbon capture tech
Duke Energy is having a big day for deals. Earlier today, it announced its contract with Echelon to deploy up to 1.5 million smart meters across its service area. Now, it’s also revealed plans to join forces with the Huaneng Group in China to research and take steps toward capturing more carbon emitted from coal-fired power plants.
As part of the agreement, the two companies will meet together several times in upcoming months to swap ideas and experiences. The language of the announcement didn’t clarify whether or not the companies would actually collaborate on concrete projects in either country. Perhaps this could be a possibility.
China has become increasingly involved in developing carbon-capture technologies after sprinting past the U.S. as the number one producer of greenhouse gases. Between them, China and the U.S. account for 40 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions — a staggering figure. Both the U.S. Department of Energy and the Chinese government are moving to combat the growing problem, and now it looks like the private sector is following suit.
Both Duke and Huaneng have cleaner emissions technologies in the works, separately. Duke has been constructing a 630-megawatt coal plant in Indiana that turns coal into synthetic gas before it is burned — a process that removes some sulfur and mercury from plant emissions. The North Carolina-based utility plans to spend $17 million more to devise carbon capture techniques.
But capturing carbon is only half the battle. Duke and Huaneng say it is critical for the partnership to produce strategies for capturing and sequestering the greenhouse gases in order to make a real difference. Many initiatives in these areas are already underway at other companies. Most are evaluating the potential of storing greenhouse gases underground or in caves.
Duke says it plans to sink $121 million more into researching underground sequestration options. In the meantime, it will revamp one of its plants in North Carolina with pulverized coal equipment capable of cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent.
On the other side of the deal, Huaneng — beyond being China’s largest utility — is known for building the country’s first carbon capture demo plant, located in Beijing. It has a commercial-scale version in the hopper for plants in Shanghai and Tianjin.
Next Story: FriendFeed says it had no pressure from Benchmark to sell
Previous Story: Facebook courted FriendFeed since it was two weeks old, Buchheit says
About the Author, Camille Ricketts
Camille is the lead writer for GreenBeat. She came to VentureBeat from Google where she worked on its traditional platforms team, particularly in TV. Before that, she was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal in New York and London. Follow her on Twitter at @camillericketts, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.