Carbon Capture Costs: FEED & pre-FEED Cost Reports

Cleco Power (Cleco) performed a three-phase front-end engineering and design (FEED) study evaluating installation of a carbon dioxide (CO2) Capture System at Madison Unit 3 (MU3), Project Diamond Vault (DV) The work was performed under a Department of Energy (DOE) grant DE-FE0032165. The FEED study included three phases: (1) a feasibility phase which sought to define the scope of the project, (2) a pre-FEED phase which sought to develop a detailed cost estimate, and (3) a final FEED phase which sought to develop the project to be ready to move into execution. The FEED study was completed by Cleco, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America (MHIA), and Sargent & Lundy, LLC (S&L) with oversight provided by the Louisiana Economic Development (LED). The feasibility phase was completed in February 2023, which was followed by the pre-FEED phase which concluded in January 2024. The project subsequently entered the final FEED phase, during this phase Cleco made the decision to stop work on the FEED study due to market conditions which resulted in a project that was not economically viable at the time.

A Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) study was undertaken to design an advanced CO2 Capture Unit (CCU) to produce 1000 tonnes per day of CO2 from the exhaust of three Once-Through Steam Generators (OTSG’s) at Devon Energy’s Jackfish 1 thermal in-situ operations and estimate the capital expenditure for the facilities within +/-15% accuracy. The process utilizes HTC Purenergy Carbon Capture Technology to capture CO2 from the OTSG exhaust gas using an aqueous chemical solvent in an absorber tower, after which the CO2-loaded solvent is passed to a stripper tower where the CO2 is released and the solvent regenerated. The study excludes downstream CO2 compression, dehydration, transportation and storage.

Scope starts with the receipt of natural gas and fuel gas mixture from the existing Plant 01 and Plant 09 source and terminates with hydrogen (H₂) at the required specification and conditions to be used as fuel in the existing SMR unit. High concentration CO₂ from the ATR is captured and H₂ production from the proposed facility will replace the fuel gas feed to the primary reformer for heating. The facility capacity is based on the heating duty required to replace the current fuel source. The scope for the study involves the new ATR unit and associated downstream shift, CO₂ capture, and syngas purification unit. The project scope also includes an ASU to supply oxygen to the ATR unit.