TVA studies carbon capture technology at natural gas plants - Chattanooga Times Free Press
TVA studies carbon capture technology at natural gas plants | Chattanooga Times Free Press
The Tennessee Valley Authority with partner TC Energy will invest $1.25 million to study ways to capture carbon at two TVA natural gas plants.
Joe Hoagland, TVA's vice president of innovation research, said TVA will conduct a feasibility study at its gas facilities in Ackerman, Mississippi, and Drakesboro, Kentucky, to determine the costs, technical challenges and operational effects of carbon capture technology.
"TVA is a clean energy leader, and we are focused on reducing carbon emissions in an efficient and cost-effective manner," Hoagland said in an announcement this week of the study. "Exploring all available technologies to eliminate carbon will allow us to move faster as we work to be net-zero by 2050."
Carbon capture works by sending the exhaust from natural gas power facilities to a carbon dioxide scrubber adjacent to the plant, where a chemical reaction absorbs the carbon dioxide before the exhaust is released into the air.
Related Knowledge Center: Carbon capture
The federal government is investing heavily in the development of carbon capture and storage (or sequestration), which offers the enticing prospect of preventing carbon dioxide emissions produced during combustion from entering the atmosphere and contributing to climate change. But the technologies involved, while proven, remain expensive, an obstacle to widespread adoption.